- TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Wednesday
tested an upgraded version of its conventional medium-range Shahab-3 missile,
two weeks after Israel tested its Arrow II anti-missile missile, the official
IRNA news agency reported. "The defense ministry announced that the
latest version of the Shahab-3 was tested today," IRNA said.
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- "This experiment on the ground was aimed at evaluating
modifications that were recently made to the missile on the basis of research
results," it said.
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- The missile is considered the mainstay of Iran's military
technology and portrayed as purely defensive and dissuasive, but specifically
as a weapon against Israel.
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- In the July 28 test of Israel's Arrow II missile, the
Jewish state made it clear the improved anti-missile system was aimed squarely
at fending off any attack by archfoe Iran.
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- Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani had said Saturday
that the test of the Shahab-3 was imminent, adding that the improvements
to the missile "not only concern its range, but other specifications
as well."
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- Tehran fears Israel could strike its controversial nuclear
program, which Washington suspects is being used to covertly develop weapons.
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- "The Israelis are trying hard to improve the capacity
of their missiles, and we are also trying to improve the Shahab-3 in a
short time," Shamkhani said, denying the Islamic republic was working
on a more advanced Shahab-4.
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- Tehran finalised its testing of the Shahab-3 only in
June.
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- The missile, whose name means "meteor" or "shooting
star" in Farsi, is thought to be capable of carrying a 1,000 kilogramme
(one-ton) warhead at least 1,300 kilometers (800 miles), well within range
of Israel.
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- Six Shahab-3 missiles were paraded in Tehran in September
during commemorations of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. One of them carried
a banner declaring: "We will wipe Israel from the map".
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- The Shahab-3 is believed to be derived from technology
acquired from Pakistan and North Korea, though Shamkhani denied any dealings
with Pyongyang.
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