New York Times: Iran test-fired a sophisticated missile on Wednesday that was capable of striking Israel and parts of Western Europe, adding to concerns that Iran’s weapons-development program is fast outpacing the American-led diplomacy that President Obama has said he will let play out through the end of the year.
The New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER and NAZILA FATHI
Published: May 20, 2009
WASHINGTON — Iran test-fired a sophisticated missile on Wednesday that was capable of striking Israel and parts of Western Europe, adding to concerns that Iran’s weapons-development program is fast outpacing the American-led diplomacy that President Obama has said he will let play out through the end of the year.
The solid-fuel Sejil-2 missile used a technology that Iran appeared to have tested at least once before, but the Obama administration nonetheless described the event as “significant,” largely because missiles of its kind can be relatively easily moved or hidden.
The Pentagon confirmed that the test of the missile had been a success, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, said that the missile “landed exactly on target,” according to Iran’s official news agency.
Mr. Ahmadinejad is up for re-election next month, raising the question of whether the timing of the launching was part of his continuing effort to portray himself as a leader who is reasserting Iran’s role as a power in the Middle East.
The Iranian president had been campaigning in the province where the launching took place, and he promised that “in the near future we will launch bigger rockets with bigger reach.” He told a crowd that with its nuclear program, Iran was sending the West a message that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is running the show,” according to translations of his appearance on Iranian television.
While Mr. Ahmadinejad is often prone to exaggeration, outside experts said that clearly Iran was on a path to producing more reliable, longer-range missiles. In November, Iran’s defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najar, was quoted by state-run television as saying the Sejil missile was “very fast,” could be produced and stored “in mass” and was easy to prepare for launching. Its launcher can immediately be removed from the firing location, he said.
Its range — believed to be more than 1,200 miles — is comparable to the liquid-fueled Shahab III, which Iran first obtained from North Korea. But a solid-fuel rocket, experts said, can be stored in mountains, moved around and reassembled, and fired on shorter notice, and thus could be harder for Israel or other nations to target.
Mr. Najar said Wednesday that the Sejil-2, the version involved in the latest launching, differed from an earlier version of the Sejil in that it “is equipped with a new navigation system as well as precise and sophisticated sensors,” according to Iran’s official news agency.
Charles P. Vick, an expert on Iranian rockets at the private research group GlobalSecurity.org, in Alexandria, Va., said the launching was part of a broader Iranian effort to develop solid-fueled missiles. The earlier version of the Sejil was fired late last year. Mr. Vick said that the Iranians had now begun to deploy the missiles as military weapons.
Mr. Vick added that Tehran test-fired an even longer-range missile that used solid fuel, the Ashura, in late 2007 and several times afterward.
“They’re designing a whole family of solids to replace their liquids,” he said in an interview.
It is that transition that has caught the attention of the White House. “I think it is a significant technical development,” Gary Samore, Mr. Obama’s top official for arms control and nuclear security, said at a presentation at the Arms Control Association in Washington. “From a mobility standpoint, it is much easier to move around.”
Mr. Samore said he hoped that the Obama administration “will be able to capitalize on this launch to strengthen our case” on the dangers of Iran’s nuclear program.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate panel that she was concerned about a series of developments in Iran that could set off an arms race in the Middle East. She warned that if Iran obtained a nuclear capacity in the next several years, it would constitute an “extraordinary threat,” saying, “Our goal is to persuade the Iranian regime that they will actually be less secure” if it moves ahead with its nuclear program.
Though she avoided details, Mrs. Clinton was giving voice to a growing concern among administration officials, who have now had time to review the intelligence, that Iran seems to have made significant progress in at least two of the three technologies necessary to field an effective nuclear weapon.
The first is enriching uranium to weapons grade, now under way at the large nuclear complex at Natanz. The second is developing a missile capable of reaching Israel and parts of Western Europe, and now the country has several likely candidates. The third is designing a warhead that will fit on the missile.
The greatest mystery surrounds the warhead program, which intelligence agencies said in late 2007 had been halted at the end of 2003. Asked Wednesday whether he had seen additional evidence to indicate that the weaponization program had been restarted, Mr. Samore declined to comment.
Iran’s announcement was likely to reinforce Israeli concerns, voiced strongly by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before his visit to Washington this week, about the pace of Iran’s nuclear and missile development programs. But Mr. Netanyahu, facing little other choice, grudgingly supported Mr. Obama’s effort to try direct diplomatic talks with Iran on its nuclear program. Mr. Obama, in a concession to Israeli impatience, said that he expected to make a judgment by the end of the year about whether Iran was making “a good-faith effort to resolve differences” on stopping the nuclear program.
The president declined to define what would constitute progress. But after the meeting, a senior Israeli official who met with reporters said the most important measure would be a suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
It is difficult to know how closely linked the launching was to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s efforts to lift his fortunes in the June election. He was shown after the launching on state television, waving out of an open-roofed car, surrounded by men showering him with confetti.
According to Iran’s Interior Ministry, the electoral authorities on Wednesday confirmed the eligibility of four candidates: Mr. Ahmadinejad; Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate politician and a former prime minister; Mehdi Karroubi, another moderate politician and a former speaker of Parliament; and Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards.
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Nazila Fathi from Tehran. William J. Broad contributed reporting.
