Iranian state-run television reported Saturday that its military has successfully test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile displayed publicly for the first time the previous day.
The Khorramshahr missile was unveiled Friday during a military parade in Tehran to commemorate the Iran-Iraq war which began on Sept. 22, 1980. State-run television did not say when or where the missile test occurred.
(Islamic Republic News Agency/Kyodo)
The new missile, which has a 2,000-kilometer range and can carry multiple warheads, "will be operational soon," Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' aerospace forces, was quoted as saying Friday by Tasnim News Agency.
The newly developed ballistic missile was unveiled just days after U.S. President Donald Trump, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, vowed not to let Iran, which he described as a "rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos," continue to destabilize the Middle East "while building dangerous missiles."
President Hassan Rouhani said at Friday's parade ceremony that Iran will defend itself as it sees fit. "We will reinforce our missiles. We won't ask anyone's permission to defend our land," he said.
The Trump administration has pointed to a succession of Iranian ballistic missile tests over recent years as violations of the spirit, if not the actual provisions, of the 2015 nuclear moratorium deal.
Under that agreement between Iran and five major world powers, Tehran agreed to uranium-enrichment limits and to international inspections of its nuclear facilities in return for the lifting of crippling banking and trade sanctions.
Trump has called the agreement an "embarrassment" and repeatedly threatened to terminate U.S. consent to it if not revised.
