Iran test-fires 3 new missiles in Persian Gulf

updated 7:26 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has successfully test fired three new models of missiles in the Persian Gulf, state TV reported Friday.

Television showed footage of the elite Revolutionary Guards firing the missiles from mobile launching pads on the shore, and from warships.

The three new types of missiles, named Noor, Kowsar, and Nasr, have a range of about 105 miles and were built for naval warfare, TV reported.

The weapons are “suitable for covering all the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the sea of Oman” said Admiral Sardar Fadavi, the deputy navy chief of the Revolutionary Guard.

Some 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes every day through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The Revolutionary Guards began maneuvers Thursday, shortly after a U.S.-led military exercise in the Gulf that Iran branded as “adventurist.” Iran remains locked in dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which Washington says is geared to producing atomic weapons but Tehran says is only for generating electricity.

On Thursday, Iran test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3, which can reach Israel.

Rice: Iran trying to show it's 'tough'
Asked about Thursday’s maneuvers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she thought the Iranians “are trying to demonstrate that they are tough.”

“The Iranians also I think are not unaware that the security environment is one in which if they actually were to do something Iran would suffer greatly and so I think they probably understand that,” Rice said on the Bill Cunningham radio show on WLW Cincinnati.

“They are trying to say to the world you are not going to keep us from getting a nuclear weapon,” she said. “The world has to say to them, yes, we will.”

Iranian state television reported that several kinds of missiles were tested, and broadcast footage of them being fired from mobile launchers.

“We want to show our deterrent and defensive power to trans-regional enemies, and we hope they will understand the message,” the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, said in a clear reference to the United States, Britain and France, who were among the six nations that took part in the Gulf maneuvers this week.

Iranian state radio said: “The maneuver is aimed at providing security in the region without the intervention of trans-regional powers, which are trying to justify their presence by portraying the region as convulsive.”

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