Twitter – Masih Alinejad
Iran unveiled its first hypersonic missile on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami.
The ‘Fattah’ missile is claimed to reach Mach 13-15 (15x the speed of sound), and “bypass the most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems of the United States and the Zionist regime, including Israel’s Iron Dome”, according to Iran’s State TV.
Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, alleged that “the Fatah missile cannot be destroyed by any missile due to its movement in different directions and heights, because anti-missile missiles move according to a specific vector, which of course has a low speed”.
The Fatah missile has been advertised across billboards in Tehran with “400 seconds to Tel Aviv” displayed in three languages including Hebrew. Although Israel’s Arrow 3 long-range missile defence system is capable of intercepting weapons outside of the Earth’s orbit, security experts believe the Fatah missile will be a significant test for Israeli defensive technology.
Speaking to Sky News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Iran is openly committed to destroying, repeating the Holocaust and destroying the six or seven million Jews of Israel and we’re not going to sit by, idly by and let them do it”.
“These Ayatollahs think that they could threaten us with a nuclear holocaust they’re wrong. We will do whatever we need to do to defend ourselves”, he added.
The weapon has been developed in defiance of Western sanctions as Iran continues to advance its ballistic missile programme. Only in May, did Iran unveil the Kheibar missile, its longest ranging missile to date. According to IRGC’s Hajizadeh, the “generational leap in the field” would take the West “decades” to catch up.
