The European Union (EU) outlined its “grave concern” by Iran’s ballistic missiles and aggression in the region, in a 12-point statement, calling on the country to stop its destabilising behaviour.
It follows the EU’s imposition of sanctions on Iran’s Ministry for Intelligence and Security in January for its alleged involvement in assassination attempts of Iranian dissidents in France, Denmark and the Netherlands.
The statement said that the EU has “serious concerns regarding Iran’s military involvement and continuous presence of Iranian forces in Syria”, and was “deeply concerned by the hostile activities that Iran has conducted on the territory of several Member States”.
Reports and images released this week have indicated that Iran now possesses new precision guided missiles that have the ability to reach Israel.
On Sunday, Iranian state media reported that Iran has equipped its most advanced, longest-range missiles, which can hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf, with new precision guided warheads.
The report said: “The new generation of missiles with guided warheads has been named Khoramshahr 2 and they can be controlled until hitting the target and are able to carry warheads weighing nearly two tonnes”, with a scope of 2,000 kilometres.
The first generation of the Khoramshahr misses were introduced in 2017. These missiles had previously been displayed as shorter-range Emad, Qadr and Qiam missiles.
On Saturday Iran launched a new long-range missile, called Hoveyzeh, was defined as a high-precision weapon with the ability to fly at low altitudes and capable of moving a big load up to a distance of 1,200 kilometres.
In addition, images released by the Colorado-based company DigitalGlobe appear to show that Iran has attempted a second satellite launch at the Imam Khomeini Space Centre in the country’s Semnan province. Images from Wednesday show that a rocket which was visible on Tuesday, was gone with what appears to be burn marks on its launch pad.
The US has criticised such launches a defying a UN Security Council resolution calling on Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
