Iran Gen: Finger always on trigger
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| Wed, 07-09-2008 - 2:14pm |
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/09/iran.missiles/index.html
Iran Gen.: Our finger is always on the trigger
- Story Highlights
- Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test fire long and medium range missiles
- NEW: Iranian general: "Our finger is always on the trigger"
- NEW: U.S.: Iran is "as serious... a problem as any we face today
- Missile tests were part of Iranians war games in the Persian Gulf
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Iran says this test-firing was a success.
"We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets," Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard ground forces, said on state TV.
"We will chase the enemies on the ground and in the sky and we are able react strongly to enemy's threats in shortest possible time."
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps test-fired a Shahab-3 missile and several other missiles during war games in the Persian Gulf called the Great Prophet III, according to Iran's state-run media and a U.S. military source.
William Burns, a senior U.S. State Department official, said Iran is "as serious ... a problem as any we face today."
The exercise comes a month after Israel conducted a military drill in the eastern Mediterranean involving dozens of warplanes, and the latest Iranian activities prompted concern from Israel and condemnation from the United States.
Iran occasionally tests missiles, but this firing comes amid international tensions over its nuclear aspirations.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said "the war game was aimed at improving the combat readiness of Iran's armed forces. The 2,000-kilometers-range Shahab-3 missiles were tested to demonstrate Iran's capability in hitting its enemies accurately at the early stages of their probable attacks against the Islamic Republic."
Watch footage of the missiles being fired »
The agency added: "Domestic and foreign political and military analysts believe that Shahab-3 is able to reach targets in the occupied lands in case of the Zionist regime's probable attacks against Iran's nuclear sites."

"World powers, who suspect Iran is intent on building nuclear weapons, have offered economic and other incentives in exchange for the suspension of its enrichment program."
Wow...isn't that what mobsters call "insurance" ??