Iran’s president defends missile program; denies supplying them to Russia, Houthis
Pezeshkian says Iran needs its missiles, or Israel ‘will bomb us whenever they want, just like in Gaza,’ shortly after satellite launch and Houthi missile attack on Israel
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday during a televised press conference that Tehran would never give up its missile program, saying the country needs such deterrence for its security, in a region where Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day.”
“If we don’t have missiles, they will bomb us whenever they want, just like in Gaza,” Pezeshkian said.
He reiterated Tehran’s official stance with respect to its missile program, calling on the international community “to first disarm Israel before making the same demands of Iran.”
Pezeshkian’s comments referred to the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Other Iranian-backed terror groups in the region, most significantly Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as groups in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen, have also fired missiles and drones at Israel since the war broke out.
In April, Iran itself launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel, firing some 300 projectiles, almost all of which were intercepted.
The Houthis, who have attacked Israel as well as merchant ships amid the war, fired a missile at Israel on Sunday, claiming it was hypersonic, though an Israeli Air Force probe found it was not.
Pezeshkian said Monday that Iran has not sent hypersonic missiles to the Houthis, saying, “It takes a person a week to travel to Yemen [from Iran], how could this missile have gotten there? We don’t have such missiles to provide to Yemen.”
However, last year Iran presented what it described as its first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing pictures of the missile named “Fattah” at a ceremony.
The Islamic Republic has for years defied Western calls to limit its missile program.
The United States and its allies have recently accused Iran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and have imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow and Tehran.
Both countries have denied the claims, and Pezeshkian on Monday again denied that his government has transferred any weapons to Russia since he took office in August.
The president’s comments also came days after Iran said it successfully launched a satellite into orbit using a rocket designed by its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Western countries worry that Iran’s development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the timeline” for the state to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, which could in turn be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
Iran is now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels, after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. It has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has warned.
