Iran fires stealth missile - Revolutionary Guards

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 31 – Iran has successfully fired its first stealth missile, according to a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

“Today, we successfully tested a new-generation missile capable of striking several targets simultaneously”, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, who commands the IRGC Air Force, told state television on Friday.

The new domestically-produced missile can “hide from radars” and “evade anti-missile missiles”, Salami said.

The missile makes use of modern “multiple warhead” technology which allows it to strike several targets simultaneously with superior accuracy.

The missile was more advanced than those found in the armies of Iran’s adversaries, he said.

The missile was fired during the first day of weeklong large-scale naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. Images of the missile taking off were aired on state television.

A Shahab-2 missile was also fired “to show Iran’s desire for peace and friendship with neighbouring countries”.

Salami is known as the father of the IRGC’s “asymmetric warfare” doctrine, which he helped to develop in the months preceding the war in Iraq. At the time, he was Director of Operations in the IRGC command headquarters.

The military doctrine is based on two components as strategic tools in any military confrontation: the massive use of suicide operations to target U.S. and Western interests around the world, and the use of weapons of mass destruction.

On July 4, 2004, General Salami called for the destruction of the United States during a ceremony to recruit suicide bombers who were willing to attack Western and Israeli targets.

“Now, America knows that Muslims with their desires for martyrdom have discovered a new technology and are capable of technological production. This has made [the U.S.] fear them”, Salami was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency ISNA.

In his position as commander of the IRGC’s Air force, General Salami is in charge of the country’s ballistic missile development project, a key component of the asymmetric warfare doctrine. Missiles are important as means of delivery for such weapons.

In November, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Salami as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the IRGC.

In the July 2004 speech, Salami had argued for the use of oil as a weapon by Muslim countries to put pressure on the West.

He said that because of the strategic location and resources of the Middle East, the United States had a goal of dominating the region, but was faced with the world of Islam.

Referring to suicide attacks against Israel, Salami said, “A young group following the ideology of Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini and the [1979] Islamic revolution have started a new strategy of struggle and jihad against the Israelis”.

“With martyrdom-seeking operations, the fight against Israel has taken on a religious quality and has spread Islamic values. It was these martyrdom-seeking operations that brought about victory for the Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon”.

He said that the West and Israel were terrified of suicide operations. “Now, no part of the Islamic world is safe and secure for America, thus the U.S. cannot move forward in the region and is currently trying to secure its present location”.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was founded in the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 as an armed force loyal to Iran’s clerical rulers. Its commanders directly report to Supreme Leader Khamenei and their mission is to “protect and propagate the Islamic revolution”.