Iran to test-fire long-range missile

TEHRAN — Iran is due to test-fire on Monday long-range missiles which Tehran claims can hit targets in arch-foe Israel as the elite Revolutionary Guards stage missile war games for the second straight day.

On Sunday, the Guards began missile war games on the occasion of the "Sacred Defence" week which marks the start of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

The exercise comes at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and the West after the UN nuclear watchdog revealed on Friday that the Islamic republic was buidling a second uranium enrichment plant.

Guards air force commander Hossein Salami told reporters on Sunday that the force would test-fire a Shahab-3 long-range missile on Monday.

Iran says the missile has a range of 1,300-2,000 kilometres (800-1,240 miles) and is capable of striking targets in Israel, most Arab states and parts of Europe -- including much of Turkey.

On Sunday, the Guards fired several short- and medium-range missiles with some having multiple warheads, state media reported.

The medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, with a range of between 300 kilometres and 700 kilometres, were successfully fired, Salami said.

"The missiles shot have precisely hit the targets," he said.

Earlier in the day on Sunday, the Guards test-fired three types of short-range missiles -- Tondar-69, Fateh-110 and Zelzal.

All three weapons, powered by solid fuel, have a range of between 100 and 400 kilometres. State-owned Press TV broadcast footage of sand-coloured missiles being fired in desert terrain.

Salami said the missile exercise aimed at practicing for "long wars, moving the missile installations from one point to another as well as simultaneous and non-simultaneous shots at convergent and divergent targets."

He also said the missile drill "has a message of friendship for friendly countries."

"For greedy countries that seek to intimidate us, the message is that we are capable of a prompt and crushing response to their animosity."

He dismissed Israel as a potential threat and said "that regime is not in a position that we need to comment about threats from it."

Tehran's manoeuvres come after US President Barack ObamaBarack Obama earlier this month scrapped his predecessor George W. BushGeorge W. Bush's plan to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and a powerful tracking radar in the Czech Republic by 2013.

He said he had decided to replace the shield with a more mobile system using mainly sea-based interceptors.

In taking the decision, Obama emphasised the threat of Iran's short-range and medium-range missiles instead of the potential danger of its longer-range weapons.

The White House said the intelligence community now believed Iran was developing shorter-range missiles "more rapidly than previously projected," while progressing more slowly than expected with intercontinental missiles.

Iran has in the past threatened to target US bases in the region and to block the strategic Gulf Strait of Hormuz waterway for oil tankers if its nuclear sites are attacked.

Israel and the United States have never ruled out a military option to thwart Iran's nuclear drive, which they suspect of having a military aim despite Tehran's denial.On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was building a second uranium enrichment plant, sparking concern by Western leaders.

On Sunday, Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi vowed that Tehran will stick to enriching uranium up to the five percent level -- much lower than bomb-grade requirement, suggesting Tehran's atomic drive had peaceful aims.

Uranium enrichment lies at the centre of fears over Iran's controversial atomic work as the process to make nuclear fuel can also be used to make the fissile core of an atom bomb in much higher purifications of over 90 percent.But US Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton, in an interview with CBS network, said "we don't believe that they can present convincing evidence that it's only for peaceful purposes, but we are going to put them to the test on October 1."Iran and world powers meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss Tehran's disputed atomic programme.