Pentagon Confirms Iran Missile Success

The U.S. confirmed Iran successfully test-fired a ballistic missile Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

Gates was asked about the reports during congressional testimony.

He said that the successful test involved a missile with a range of approximately 2,000 to 2,500 kilometers. He said that because of chronic engine problems, the range is probably on the lower end of that scale.

Gates said he couldn't say whether the test missile hit its intended target.

Earlier Wednesday, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the launch was a successful test-firing of a new advanced missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. Mideast bases.

The announcement comes less than a month before Iran's presidential election and just two days after President Barack Obama declared a readiness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it did not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.

"Iran's long range missile test is not only provocative, but it puts both President Obama and the Security Council in a difficult position," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N. "After three rounds of sanctions that have not worked, the best hope for a peaceful settlement continues to be for Iran to negotiate its way back to an inspections program."

"With Iran's election in less than a month, the situation might change," added Falk. "But Israel's new Prime Minister is pressing for more U.N. sanctions and Iran's current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is more defiant than ever."

Some dozen hours after the test, numerous U.S. defense and intelligence officials declined to even acknowledge the Iranian launch had occurred. Some referred calls to the White House and State Department, a sign of how politically sensitive the development is to the Obama administration and its continuing efforts to deal with Iran's reported efforts to build nuclear weapons.

But Gates confirmed the test's success Wednesday afternoon.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, apppearing Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that a nuclear-armed Iran is "going to spark an arms race" in the Middle East.

Without commenting directly on the missile launch reports, Clinton referred Wednesday to a host of threats to the United States that she said are "daunting."

Clinton reiterated that the Obama administration opposes Iran getting a nuclear weapons capability and that it is relying for now on diplomatic pressure to stop it.

She described a nuclear capability as an "extraordinary threat." And Clinton said that the U.S. goal is "to persuade the Iranian regime that they will actually be less secure if they proceed with their nuclear weapons program."

Iran continues enriching uranium, although not yet to bomb-grade levels. The CIA estimates Iran could have a nuclear weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015. But both the U.S. and Israel have launched covert operations designed to through sand in the gears by supplying faulty parts or designs, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.

Clinton has indicated that Iran may be experiencing delays, saying, "Recent analyses have suggested the timetable may be longer than what originally had been thought."

But President Obama told Israel's new prime minister he is prepared to give diplomacy several more months to produce results.

U.S. officials are hoping for a more moderate government after elections in June. But the real powers in Iran are the mullahs and they aren't up for election, Martin reports.

Iran said the solid-fuel Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile is a new version of the Sajjil missile, which the country said it successfully tested late last year and has a similar range. Many analysts said the launch of the solid-fuel Sajjil was significant because such missiles are more accurate than liquid fuel missiles of similar range, such as Iran's Shahab-3.

"Defense Minister (Mostafa Mohammad Najjar) has informed me that the Sajjil-2 missile, which has very advanced technology, was launched from Semnan and it landed precisely on the target," state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He did not name any future targets for the missile when he spoke during a visit to the city of Semnan, 125 miles east of the capital Tehran, where Iran's space program is centered.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page »

[jwesel1]

No problem Obama is in charge.... If he has too he will grab the rocket in mid air and protect Israel, what else do you expect from Superman.
Posted by vistavermin1 at 5:56 AM : May 21, 2009
===================================================================

And why exactly should Obama care about the criminal state of Israel?

[jwesel1]

Wake up people the implications of Iranian ballistic missiles are horrifying to think about but they are only a push button away.
Posted by claydowner at 9:34 PM : May 21, 2009

===================================================================
Why not go after the source of the problems in the middle east, the illegal state of Israel.

[jwesel1]

How long will it be before Iran starts to ship these over to hezbollah?
Posted by armyoftwelve at 5:51 PM : May 22, 2009
=======================================================
About the same time that US takes to send weapons to Israel after fake congress debates, i.e., at a moment's notice.

[pirjan]

Are the Westren women not reapped abused and traded. Rape in Muslim counties is drop in ocean in consodration to Westren countries. What about of prostitution. Forget the street prostitution on streets, strip clubs just look at the millions ofgirli magazines each weeks with millions of new girls every week. All this is oppression of women. Expolitation of poor people's daughters. Muslim women run homes and Muslim men protect their women. And so do Hindus and Budhests.

[pirjan]

Are the Westren women not reapped abused and traded. Reape in Muslim counties is drop in ocean in consodration to Muslim countries. What about of prostitution. Forget the street prostitution on streets, strip clubs just look at the millions ofgirli magazines each weeks with millions of new girls every week. All this is oppression of women. Expolitation of poor people's daughters. Muslim women run homes and Muslim men protect their women. And so do Hindus and Budhests.

[armyoftwelve]

How long will it be before Iran starts to ship these over to hezbollah?

[U-R-So-Wrong]

Our names speak for themselves.

[claydowner]

If Israel and Iran decide to go to war with ballistic missiles say good bye to the world as you know it. Even if nuclear weapons are not used the war would be an economic holocaust. Ballistic missiles used on urban centers of either Iran or Israel will result in rapid escalation of a widespread regional war across the Middle East region. Oil pipelines and infrastructure across the region including Saudi Arabia would be targeted and destroyed by terrorists across the Persian Gulf region. The US Navy will not be able to easily secure the oil supply lines out of the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea can easily be closed by sea mines which Iran has in great abundance just for that purpose. Minesweepers are a rare commodity in the US naval arsenal. We have very few of them. Here is the point: an all out war with ballistic missiles between Israel and Iran will result in the oil futures market to hit $200 to $300 per barrel with prices staying there for a long period of time. Insurance for supertankers will soar to the stratosphere after only after a few of them are sunk. The US imports 70% of its oil much of it from OPEC countries. What will our economy look like when oil is $7 or $8 per gallon? Under such circumstances the American economic system would implode like the Soviet Union did in 1989. Can anyone say Psalm 23 for the great American middle class dream founded on cheap imported OPEC oil? The 21st century will become an Asian century not an American one. Anyone who believes different is uninformed and naive to the great dangers our country faces from the menace of a ballistic missile arms race in the Middle East. Wake up people the implications of Iranian ballistic missiles are horrifying to think about but they are only a push button away.

[U-R-So-Wrong]

Iran is the spiritual home to many. They have that kind of trouble.

[U-R-So-Wrong]

Not that such things are encouraged in a one-party police state.