TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran can launch a missile as far as 1,250 miles (2,000 km), a senior official has been quoted as saying, substantially increasing the announced range of the Islamic state's military capabilities.
Such a missile would be capable of hitting Israel or parts of southeastern Europe. Iran says its missiles are for purely defensive purposes and would be used to counter a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.
"Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000 km range," IRNA quoted influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying on Tuesday. "Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities."
Iran fiercely denies U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is building nuclear weapons.
But Iranian officials have trumpeted their ability to strike back at any aggressor many times in recent months and in August announced they had successfully tested an upgraded version of Iran's medium-range Shahab-3 missile.
Military experts say the unmodified Shahab-3 had a range of 810 miles which would allow it to strike anywhere in Israel. Shahab means meteor in Persian.
Rafsanjani was speaking at a exhibition on "Space and Stable National Security".
Source:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissin...43&sid=5256783