Iran Says Its Missiles Can Target Within 2,000 KM Range

Iran says it has the technical capacity to target all enemy bases within a range of 2,000 km, which it boasts about in order to serve as a deterrent to the US and Israel, which consistently threaten to attack the Islamic Republic.

“Iran has now reached a point of progress that can target 2,000 enemy bases within a range of 2,000 km,” said General Morteza Qorbani, senior adviser to the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

“We don’t need missiles with a range of more than 2,000 km, but we have the technology to build them,” Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), told reporters in December. The ability to reach Israel is enough, he said.

Enough, because that’s all they need to properly deter US or Israeli aggression. Iran’s long-range missiles have been an important development in persuading Washington against bombing Iran.

An extended US military strike on Iran would harm their military capabilities and marginally delay their nuclear program, but it would also prompt large-scale Iranian retaliation that would spark an uncontrollable regional war.

That assessment was compiled in a report by former government officials, national security experts and retired military officers that was released back in September. “It says achieving more than a temporary setback in Iran’s nuclear program would require a military operation – including a land occupation – more taxing than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined,” AP reported.

Increasing the perceivable costs to the US for a war on Iran was probably a good part of the reason the US decided not to take action in 2011 and 2012, when the pressure from Israel to do so reached its greatest level. That, and the fact that the best US intelligence available has concluded that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.