Free Republic

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles. At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence...

Berlin and Moscow now within range of the vile, apocalyptic Iranian regime...Most defense experts had heard of individual advanced missile components supplied to Tehran by Pyongyang- but entire nuclear-capable North Korean missiles complete with their massive boosters are a bit of a shocker... and how did they get them there, anyway? Alas, the BM-25's were indeed serendipitously sent, and are already in Iran... where they are being studied, improved, while the technologies are applied to their space program and ongoing development of an ICBM that can reach the US mainland. They immediately increase the range Iran's arsenal to 2000 miles...

Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years...

Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year.

Iranian ships and submarines have deployed an undisclosed number of Iranian troops and weapons at the Eritrean port town of Assab, according to opposition groups, foreign diplomats, and NGOs in the area. The city of Assab sits at the Horn of Africa in the Arabian Sea. As such, Assab offers a strategic position as the world nervously eyes the precarious routes through which a seaborne oil traverses daily. Local sources have reported that Iran recently sent soldiers and a large number of long-range and ballistic missiles. The military basing came after Iran signed an accord with Eritrea to revamp the...

Top News Story Ukraine 'Sold Nuclear-Capable Missiles to Iran' 2.2.2005 A senior lawmaker alleges that Ukraine sold nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in violation of international non-proliferation treaties and is demanding the new government launch a full investigation. The allegations were made in a letter by lawmaker Hrihory Omelchenko and addressed to President Viktor Yushchenko, a reformist who took office last week. Yushchenko, who takes over from Leonid Kuchma, has promised a thorough investigation of corruption and misdeeds that allegedly flourished during his predecessor’s 10 years as president. Kuchma allegedly sanctioned the sale of sophisticated radar systems...

SNIPPET - QUOTE: Possibly the mystery of the three recent incidents of exploding Yemeni fishing boats can be explained as Iranian missile shipments. The following article asserts Iran is shipping from an African country, likely Sudan, to Yemen. A Yemeni fishing boat also exploded in a Sudanese port and Yemen's Midi Island is a new transit point for Sudanese refugees. Once there's a smuggling route established for weapons, the boats often also transport refugees. However this report is taken from a Yemeni government stooge newspaper, Akhbar al Youm, which once announced that Ayatollah Sistani and I (me Jane) wrote the...

•Iran is vigorously pursuing several missile and space programs at an almost feverish pace with impressive achievements. The Iranians have upgraded their ballistic missiles to become satellite launchers. To orbit a satellite is a highly sophisticated endeavor. It requires proficiency in stage separation and advanced guidance and control systems to insert the satellite into a stable, desired trajectory. They took the Shahab, extended it a bit, added a new lightweight second stage, and now they have the Safir space launch vehicle. The very capability to build a two-stage satellite launcher, rather than the usual three-stage rockets for space-lift vehicles, is...

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) - Iran could have the ability to strike most of Europe with a ballistic missile within three or four years if it made an all-out push, the former head of Israel's missile defense program said. If correct, the Iran missile timeline cited by Uzi Rubin, a leading authority on Iran's program, puts a fresh note of urgency into a diplomatically thorny debate over building a multibillion-dollar anti-missile shield in Europe.

In a handout picture released on the news website of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, four long and medium range missiles rise into the air after being test-fired at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert on July 9, 2008. Iran today test-fired a missile it said is capable of reaching Israel, angering the United States amid growing fears that the standoff over the contested Iranian nuclear drive could lead to war.

The War with Iran By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. Last week’s Iranian missile tests prompted another round of fevered speculation that war might erupt between Iran and the United States. Largely lost in the frenzy is an unhappy fact: The Iranian mullahocracy has been at war with this country since it came to power in 1979. The problem is that the weapons available to Tehran for prosecuting its jihad against “the Great Satan” are no longer simply truck bombs and suicide vests. Its proxy army, Hezbollah, has taken over Lebanon and operates terror cells from Iraq to Latin America and...

Iran's test salvo of ballistic missiles last week together with recent threatening rhetoric by commanders of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards emphasizes how close the Middle East is to a fundamental, in fact an irreversible, turning point. Tehran's efforts to intimidate the United States and Israel from using military force against its nuclear program, combined with yet another diplomatic charm offensive with the Europeans, are two sides of the same policy coin. The regime is buying the short additional period of time it needs to produce deliverable nuclear weapons, the strategic objective it has been pursuing clandestinely for 20 years...

Last week’s Iranian missile tests prompted another round of fevered speculation that war might erupt between Iran and the United States. Largely lost in the frenzy is an unhappy fact: The Iranian mullahocracy has been at war with this country since it came to power in 1979. The problem is that the weapons available to Tehran for prosecuting its jihad against “the Great Satan” are no longer simply truck bombs and suicide vests. Its proxy army, Hezbollah, has taken over Lebanon and operates terror cells from Iraq to Latin America and even inside the United States. With help from Communist...

The BBC has raised the possibility that Iran may target NATO forces in Afghanistan, which include several thousand Canadian troops stationed in the province of Kandahar, with short-range missiles. Those who focused on the possibility of Iran and Israel going to war or a strike against the U. S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf have overlooked the chance that attacking elsewhere might also serve Iran's strategic interests, the BBC said in an article on its Web site last week.

Iran's missile tests last week will strengthen its position in diplomatic efforts to resolve an international standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear plans, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday. "The manoeuvres helped the Islamic Republic to go to the negotiating table with a full hand," the official IRNA news agency quoted Deputy Defence Minister Nasrullah Ezatti as saying. Ezatti, a brigadier-general who is in charge of coordinating armed forces logistics, was speaking five days before Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was expected to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Geneva. In June, Solana presented...

TEHRAN, July 11 (UPI) -- Iran's missile capability, shown off this week in its first test, poses no threat to the region or Europe, an Iranian official said Friday. The tests were merely a military exercise but showed Iran is ready to fight off any threat, Mohammad-Esmail Kowsari, the deputy head of Majlis National Security and the Foreign Policy Commission, told the IRNA news service. "Defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic (of Iran) is based on self-defense," he said. "Since theU.S. and the Zionist Regime have newly planned an all-out threat against Iran, the Islamic Republic's armed forces showed in...

<p>I think the Iraqis would support Israel taking out their arch enemy, Iran, and would allow overflights & perhaps even the use of airfields.</p>

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran tested more missiles in the Persian Gulf, state media reported Thursday, a day after the country drew Western criticism for test-firing nine rockets.

Iran tested more missiles in the Gulf on Thursday, state media said, and the United States reminded Tehran that it was ready to defend its allies. The United States, which accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear arms, said after Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday that there should be no more such tests if Iran wanted the world's trust. An intelligence official in Washington said there had been a second test and that it was small. U.S. leaders have not ruled out military options if diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is only to produce...

Q&A With Christopher Pang, a Middle East Analyst Who Specializes in International Defense Iran test-fired nine missiles today and warned the United States and Israel that it was capable of retaliation against an attack over its disputed nuclear projects. Although the United States has urged Tehran to stop further tests, Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are directed solely at generating electricity. (ABCNews.com) Christopher Pang is the Middle East analyst for the London-based Royal United Services Institute, or RUS, an organization that studies international defense and security. ABC News asked Pang about the implications of Iran's test. How significant was today's...