The Iranian parliament has approved a bill that requires the Tehran government to “further develop and increase” its missile power.
Iran has already violated a wealth of United Nations Security Council resolutions with its recent development and tests of long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching the State of Israel, and which are able to nuclear warheads.
According to a report on the semi-official FARS News Agency website (FNA), the bill was approved Sunday within the framework of Iran’s 5-year development plan.
It calls for enhancement of the country’s deterrence power by developing and boosting its missile production capability, strengthening the air defense power at different short-, mid- and long-range levels.
It also requires the government to update safe communication networks to establish a command and control system, make all weapons systems “smart” and mobile appropriate with threats.
In addition, it requires researching, designing and producing the needed equipment to “confront the terrorist groups” as well as to develop Iran’s naval power by equipping it with “advanced weapons.”
The bill also calls on the government to “reinvigorate the country’s electronic warfare capability.”
In remarks on state TV in March, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami announced that Iran had “now reached a point that we can fire different classes of missiles simultaneously in order to hit any enemy.”
IRGC Aerospace Force Brig.-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters at around the same time that Iran’s missiles “belong to the Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi nations, as well as all the oppressed people of the world.
“We are not after expansionism and certainly these missiles are not being used against terrorist groups. However, that could be a possibility too,” Hajizadeh said at the time.
He also bluntly acknowledged in the same briefing, “Iran has built missiles that can hit targets at 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles). They are designed to hit Israel at such a distance,” he said. “Israel has been surrounded by Islamic countries and its life is short. So it will collapse in any given war – long before a missile is even fired,” he added.
The Lebanon-based Iranian proxy Hezbollah has reportedly amassed an arsenal of approximately 100,000 missiles of varying ranges, including those with ranges long enough to reach Jerusalem and beyond.
A delegation from the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group is also currently in Tehran visiting its Iranian backers to ‘discuss ways to bolster the intifada in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem,’ among other issues.
Both Hezbollah and the PIJ have bases in the Sinai Peninsula and have carried out operations in cooperation with the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza as well, on Israel’s southern border.
The Israel Defense Forces have been carrying out intensive military drills for months in anticipation of “unexpected” aggression by terror cells from these groups or any other. Last week an IDF official warned, “If a war is started this time, the enemy will pay a much higher price than in previous conflicts. This time it will be a ‘real’ war.”