Iran’s claims to have created hypersonic missile alarm Israel
Iran has alarmed Israel by unveiling what it claims is its first domestically made hypersonic missile. It had previously said it would be able to hit Israel within 400 seconds.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, attended the unveiling of the missile, named Fattah, or “conqueror” in Farsi. It is claimed to have a range of 870 miles (1,400km), to be able to travel at up to 15 times the speed of sound and to bypass air defence systems.
Hypersonic missiles can fly at least at Mach 5 – five times the speed of sound – and their speed and claimed manoeuvrability is believed to make them difficult to intercept. Only four other countries claim to have them in their arsenals.
Iran said in November it was on the way to building a hypersonic ballistic missile that could manoeuvre in and out of the atmosphere. “It can bypass the most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems of the US and the Zionist regime, including Israel’s Iron Dome,” Iran’s state TV said.
Raisi claimed in a segment on Iranian state TV unveiling the Fattah that it was a deterrent that would be “a point of security and stable peace” for the region.
“This missile power means that the region will be safe from evildoers and foreign aggression,” he said. “So its message to the people of the region is a message of security, and its message to those who are thinking of attacking Iran is that the Islamic Republic is a powerful country and its power aims to support the people of Iran and the oppressed people of the world.”
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the aerospace force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, called the Fattah “a missile that is unique in the world”. Iran has not described any actual launch of the missile and Hajizadeh later said there had been a ground test of the missile’s engine, which involves a rocket motor being put on a stand and fired to check its abilities.
China is believed to be pursuing hypersonic missiles, as is the US. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it has used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said in May it had shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with US Patriot air defences.
In the past Iran has been accused of inflating its missile technology claims. The reports come just as Israel expressed growing alarm that the west was considering a new negotiation with Tehran to reinvigorate the stalled nuclear deal controlling Iran’s civil nuclear programme. The UN nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said it had reached an initial agreement with its Iranian counterparts to reinvigorate its severely curtailed inspection process.
The IAEA also said Iran had given an explanation for depleted uranium traces at one site, known as Marivan, saying it was due to the presence of a mine and laboratory.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Iran’s explanation was “technically impossible”, adding: “The agency’s capitulation to Iranian pressure is a black stain on its record.” The director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said his organisation never watered down its standards for political purposes. He also said Iran’s progress on allowing the installation of cameras at nuclear sites remained too slow.
There are reports Iran is about to receive about $24bn (£19bn) of currency shortly, including $7bn from South Korea, $10bn from Iraq and $6.7bn in special drawing rights. Those reports may be linked to the recent release of three Europeans held in Iranian jails, and mediation by Oman. Discussions about the release of US prisoners are continuing.
But the US ambassador to the IAEA, Laura Holgate, speaking to a quarterly board meeting of the nuclear watchdog, said: “Iran continues to expand its nuclear activities far beyond JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for the Iran nuclear deal] limits. In particular, we have underscored that Iran’s production of uranium enriched up to 60% has no credible peaceful purpose. No other country in the world today utilises uranium enriched to 60% for the purpose Iran claims.”
Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, said his country would “never, never allow” Iran to have nuclear weapons. “The Iranians should be deeply concerned, because if they come close to that threshold, they must realise that nobody in Iran should sleep well at night, because we will never allow that to happen. They should be really, really concerned.
“I remind our friends in America that we’re on the same line. We should all lay together and, naturally, it’s going to be easier for us in Israel to do it in collaboration with the rest of the free world, headed by the United States of America. This is my expectation, and I hope that Iran will understand, sooner rather than later, not to mess around with us.”
A reworked nuclear deal will be seen as a betrayal by the exiled Iranian opposition that continues to fight to protect the rights of political prisoners in Iran. It would also anger Ukraine, which says its cities have been bombarded by Iranian-made drones.