TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that the restriction on the range of the country’s missiles has been lifted, and spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi said Iran would demonstrate its ability to respond to threats on the battlefield, according to ABNA.
Mohebbi made the announcement at a press conference in Tehran marking IRGC Aerospace Week, according to Tasnim. Iran’s earlier policy was a deliberate limit of 2,000 kilometres, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.
“This restriction has been lifted for us”
The announcement followed a warning from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei that threats against Iran should receive an immediate response without geographical limits. Tasnim reported that Khamenei also ordered a full update of the military’s target lists, covering United States and Israeli assets.
Mohebbi cautioned that the statement was not itself proof of a new capability in the field. “Our duty is to show our capabilities on the battlefield,” he said, adding that it would be inappropriate to make claims before putting them into practice. The coverage contained no evidence that Iran has tested or fielded a missile able to fly beyond the former limit.
At the same press conference, Mohebbi said missile and drone production had been moved rapidly from surface sites to underground facilities, and that an underground missile city was set to be unveiled. Weapons of the IRGC Aerospace Force are made with homegrown knowledge, he said, and not by reverse-engineering captured enemy material, IRNA reported.
Asked about explosions overnight in the Strait of Hormuz, Mohebbi said, according to ABNA: “We had firings, and most of the explosions were related to defensive firings and had no other consequence. During these firings, an American aircraft was also hit.” That claim was not independently verified in the coverage, and no United States confirmation of it was reported.
The range announcement comes in a war that began on Feb. 28, when a U.S.-Israeli campaign prompted Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz and set off a global energy crisis. Mediation efforts have stepped up in recent days, and on Friday President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had launched limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island while claiming Washington had made a lot of progress in talks with Iran.
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