Iran Launches New Missiles

Iran has successfully test fired three new models of missiles in the Persian gulf, state TV reported Friday.

Television showed footage of the elite Revolutionary Guards firing the missiles from mobile launching pads on the shore, and from warships.

The three new types of missiles, named Noor, Kowsar, and Nasr, have a range of about 106 miles and were built for naval warfare, TV reported.

The weapons are "suitable for covering all the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian gulf and the sea of Oman" said Admiral Sardar Fadavi, the deputy navy chief of the Revolutionary Guard.

Some 20 percent of the world's oil supply passes every day through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The Revolutionary Guards began maneuvers on Thursday, shortly after a U.S.-led military exercise in the Gulf. Iran test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel, in military maneuvers that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Gulf region.

The show of strength Thursday came three days after U.S.-led warships finished naval exercises in the Gulf that Iran branded as "adventurist."

Iran remains locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which Washington says is geared to producing atomic weapons but Tehran says is only for generating electricity.

Asked about Thursday's maneuvers, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she thought the Iranians "are trying to demonstrate that they are tough."

"The Iranians also I think are not unaware that the security environment is one in which if they actually were to do something, Iran would suffer greatly and so I think they probably understand that," Rice said on the Bill Cunningham radio show on WLW Cincinnati.

"They are trying to say to the world you are not going to keep us from getting a nuclear weapon," she said. "The world has to say to them, yes, we will."

Iranian state television reported that several kinds of missiles were tested, and broadcast footage of them being fired from mobile launchers.

A senior Russian diplomat said Friday that Moscow will not back the European draft resolution on Iran at the U.N. Security Council, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia "won't support it in the shape it is now," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said, according to Interfax.

The five veto-wielding permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — were expected to discuss the proposed resolution this week at the United Nations. Both Moscow and Beijing have signaled their opposition.

The resolution, drawn up by Britain, France and Germany, orders all countries to prevent the sale and supply of material and technology that could contribute to Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.

It imposes a travel ban and freezes the assets of people involved in these programs — and also orders countries to freeze the assets of companies and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

While the U.S. indicated it considers the draft too weak, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested it was too strong.