The Iran situation, a week after the midterm elections, remains in a holding pattern, with President Donald Trump claiming in recent interviews that he doesn’t think striking the country again will be necessary.
Mediation between the sides is ongoing, with Qatar’s prime minister visiting Washington and meeting with Trump this week. But overall, since the American election, not much has changed on the Iran front.
Eight U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, sit on the flightline, July 9, 2018, at Yokota Air Base, Japan. Eight F-22s evacuated from Kadena Air Base, Japan due to Typhoon Maria. The F-22 are deployed under U.S. PACOM’s theater security package (TSP) program, which has been in operation since 2004. (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)
F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Flying. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In the meantime, the Iranian side has not been quiet.
In fact, they claimed this week that they operate an underground “missile city.”
According to The Jerusalem Post, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently showed off the underground site, which contains “ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and their launchers.”
The IRGC, along with Maj.-Gen. Ali Abdollahi, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, and Brig.-Gen. Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, gave Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency a tour of the facility.
The Jerusalem Post stated that the facility “cannot be verified and may or may not be brand new.”
The report did not provide any indication of where in Iran the “missile city” is located. This would seem to be a factory of sorts for producing advanced missiles and related technologies. That would also make sense, as it would be hard for the U.S. or Israel to destroy it.
Another Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, analyzed what was shown in the footage.
The newspaper quoted Tal Inbar, an expert in missiles and space, as saying the released footage “suggests Iran is working to reduce the radar signature of its missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.”
The expert also noticed that a warhead developed for Iran’s Fattah-1 hypersonic missile was on a Kheibar Shekan missile.
Bloomberg News, meanwhile, reported that Iran is currently producing about 50 missiles per month, citing an “unnamed Western official.” That official claimed that Iran likely has 1,700 ballistic missiles remaining and is continuing to make more.
Threats from Iran
A six-minute video of the “missile city” facility was posted on social media.
“Advanced missiles will surprise enemies with their battlefield impact,” Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, told the news agency. “If the enemy makes another move against us, our response will extend beyond the region.”
Also on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported that the IRGC has announced that it has lifted its self-imposed 2,000km (1,250-mile) limit on ballistic missile range.
“This limitation has been lifted for us,” IRGC spokesman Brigadier-General Hossein Mohebbi said in a news conference in Tehran over the weekend.
Last week, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had warned that “any kind and level of threat” from the United States or Israel would be responded to, “unlimited by geography.”
What’s the difference now that the limit has been lifted?
Per Al Jazeera, the “entire Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and most of Egypt,” and parts of Southern Europe were within the old range.
The Gulf States were all within the old range.
“The change can help Iran to position some of its rocket launchers in the country’s east, from where it would require a bigger range to reach Israel,” Al Jazeera reported. “The US and its European allies fear Iran can target US bases in the Indian Ocean and Europe.”
A Uranium Breakthrough?
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Mohsen Rezaei, said in an interview this week that Iran would not transfer its enriched uranium to any other country.
Rezaei told Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV that Tehran “will not remove a single atom of enriched nuclear material” and has informed Russia that it would not do so.
Rezaei, the official to whom Vice President JD Vance wrote a letter last week, visited Russia last week and met with President Vladimir Putin.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
