Iran tests new surface-to-surface missile

[BBSA]

Iran announced Wednesday that it successfully tested another "Sajil" missile, a surface-to-surface missile with a range that makes it capable of reaching parts of Europe.

The United States confirmed that Wednesday's test of the missile -- with an approximate range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) -- was successful, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN. The official did not want to be named for security reasons.

When asked if the missile indicates a new capability for the Iranians, the official said, "it advances the ball somewhat."

The test shows that the Iranians are looking to increase the sophistication of their ballistic missile program, and to increase their weapons stockpile, the official said.

The test should be more of a concern to Europe than to Israel, since previous missiles tested by Iran could already reach the Jewish state, an Israeli official said.

"If anyone had any doubt, it is now clear that the Iranians are playing with fire," Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon said Wednesday in an interview on Kol Israel Radio. "We know that the Iranians are developing capabilities of thousands of kilometers, that could reach the coasts of the United States. ...

"The Iranian clock is ticking fast and it must be stopped."

The Sajil is a new generation of surface-to-surface Iranian-made missiles that "demonstrates a significant leap in Iran's missile capabilities," Uzi Rubin, the former director of Israel's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, told Jane's Information Group after the November test.

"Regardless of the success of the test, this missile places Iran in the realm of multiple-stage missiles, which means that they are on the way to having intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities," he said.

Sajil missiles are powered by solid fuel, which uses smaller containers and helps the rockets travel longer distances, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Iran says the missiles have a range of almost 2,000 km (1,243 miles). If that is true, the missile brings Moscow, Athens and southern Italy within striking distance from Iran, according to Jane's -- which provides information on defense issues.

After the November launch, the United States restated its objection to such tests, saying they violate Iran's obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

U.S. officials have cast doubt on the success of past missile test launches by Iran, including a rocket launch in August and a series of missile tests in July.

Wednesday's reported test comes after Israeli leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. officials in Washington to discuss how to deal with the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. He met Tuesday with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner.

President Barack Obama, who met with Netanyahu on Monday, stuck by his refusal to commit to an "artificial deadline" for Iranian negotiations on its nuclear program. But he also warned that he would not allow such talks, which he expects to accelerate after the Iranian presidential election in June, to be used as an excuse for delay.

He said the United States is not "foreclosing a range of steps, including much stronger international sanctions, in assuring that Iran understands that we are serious."

Netanyahu wanted a time limit for negotiations relating to such ambitions, with the threat of military action if no resolution is reached.

Both Israel and the United States believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program; Tehran denies the accusation. Israeli leaders have pointed to Ahmadinejad's calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state, and argue that quick action is needed.

Netanyahu called Iran the biggest threat to peace in the region.

"If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, it could give a nuclear umbrella to terrorists, or worse, could actually give (them) nuclear weapons. And that would put us all in great peril," he said.

Obama is considered to have a more conciliatory approach to the Arab and Muslim world than Netanyahu

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These idiots are playing with fire, Israel is not just going to sit back and allow this.

 

[RetroBok]

While it's scary, I'm a little cynical, WMD in Iraq anyone?

 

[BBSA]

While it's scary, I'm a little cynical, WMD in Iraq anyone?

This was announced by Iran.

 

[RetroBok]

Oh... I clearly missed that bit Tis been a long day

 

[killadoob]

Well with the US giving them so much kuk, i would also want to make sure i am prepared for an attack.

Just like the US develops weapons for protection i see no reason why other countries cannot do so, it would be naive to think Iran is not threatened by America.

They want to send out a message basically saying attack us and we have the ability to hit back. The world seems fine when the US test and develop weapons. That's fine because the US would not do anything bad like lie about a country having WMD and then attack them for no good reason apart from the lie.

 

[BBSA]

Well with the US giving them so much kuk, i would also want to make sure i am prepared for an attack.

Just like the US develops weapons for protection i see no reason why other countries cannot do so, it would be naive to think Iran is not threatened by America.

They want to send out a message basically saying attack us and we have the ability to hit back. The world seems fine when the US test and develop weapons. That's fine because the US would not do anything bad like lie about a country having WMD and then attack them for no good reason apart from the lie.

The US never said they want to destroy another country. Isreal is not going to take this kuk.

 

[Sackboy]

Let me know when it will reach RSA. Allah Akbah (that'll keep them away!)

 

[CyraxHB]

Iran should be careful. They are just giving Israel another excuse to attack them.

 

[Kaleb]

Well with the US giving them so much kuk, i would also want to make sure i am prepared for an attack.

Just like the US develops weapons for protection i see no reason why other countries cannot do so, it would be naive to think Iran is not threatened by America.

They want to send out a message basically saying attack us and we have the ability to hit back. The world seems fine when the US test and develop weapons. That's fine because the US would not do anything bad like lie about a country having WMD and then attack them for no good reason apart from the lie.

Um the U.S dont have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their president . You do realise that this is the guy that said that Isreal should be wiped off the map and denies that the Holocaust happend.

 

[d0b33]

The US test missiles all the time... nobody complains yet they're the ones invading countries.

What happened to Bin Laden? I though he was who the US were looking for.

 

[d0b33]

You do realise that this is the guy that said that Isreal should be wiped off the map and denies that the Holocaust happend.

And you understand Persian? please give me the direct quote

It has been proven that the quote was twisted. Israel is the Apartheid of the Middle East of course people want that regime changed.

 

[Fudzy]

Raise your hands, who here thinks the US do not have ballistics that can reach other continents?

 

[RetroBok]

Raise your hands, who here thinks the US do not have ballistics that can reach other continents?

If they can get Mickey D's (who knows what's in their burgers???) into every corner of the world, I'm sure they could get a gun powder powered metal tube across the seas.

 

[tcltk]

And you understand Persian? please give me the direct quote

It has been proven that the quote was twisted. Israel is the Apartheid of the Middle East of course people want that regime changed.

Oh really? You've lived there? Have you even been to visit - have you witnessed with your own eyes?

By Simon Deng

Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston's Old South Church at a conference on "Israel Apartheid." Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.

The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools, and get the best medical care in the world. I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here.
None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu's South Africa.

I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than Apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders. Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud.

Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people "humiliating" your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.

Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that inconvenience than about Jewish lives?

Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela's freedom, we Africans allover Africa joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.

Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans. I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.

So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom? Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now. Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?

Simon Deng, a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, is an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist.

What you really mean is this

 

[Frankie]

lie about a country having WMD

I guess you're referring to Iraq


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

Chemical weapons (CW) were used by the Iraqi government forces in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja, killing thousands of people, most of them civilians (3,200-5,000 dead on the spot and 7,000-10,000 injured[1]). Thousands more died of horrific complications, diseases, and birth defects in the years after the attack.[2]

The incident, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) defined as an act of genocide, was as of 2009 the largest-scale chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history

 

[killadoob]

Frankie do you know anything about America bud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange i somehow think this may have been on a much larger scale but once again the US did it so it is not considered bad as usual. They even used it on their own troops for goodness sake.

Agent Orange is the code name for an herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War, when an estimated 21,136,000 gal. (80 000 m³) of Agent Orange were sprayed across South Vietnam. 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

I think you US should okes actually know a bit about the US before telling us what other countries have done that is so bad.

 

[marine1]

Time for Israel to strike Iran in the heart.
But noooo their nuclear ambitions are for peace

 

[RazedInBlack]

Well with the US giving them so much kuk, i would also want to make sure i am prepared for an attack.

Just like the US develops weapons for protection i see no reason why other countries cannot do so, it would be naive to think Iran is not threatened by America.

They want to send out a message basically saying attack us and we have the ability to hit back. The world seems fine when the US test and develop weapons. That's fine because the US would not do anything bad like lie about a country having WMD and then attack them for no good reason apart from the lie.

+1 to that! Like your sig says . . .

I personally have had enough of the US bullsh1t they spew at us all the time. Protector of the world . . . just fsck off! FFS!

 

[marine1]

Yes lets rather have Iran running things....what a load of BS

 

[Frankie]

Agreed, the world should reject all US interference.