by WorldTribune Staff, April 17, 2017
Iran will continue to manufacture missiles and fighter jets and does not need any other country’s permission to do so, President Hassan Rouhani said on April 15.
“We have repeatedly declared that strengthening the defensive prowess of Iran’s armed forces is only aimed at defending the country and will never be used against another country,” Rouhani said in a ceremony in Teheran to unveil new domestically-manufactured weapons, according to a PressTV report.
Iran’s Defense Ministry on April 15 unveiled what it called recent technological achievements by the defense industry, including a domestically-made jet named Kowsar.
A tactical drone, dubbed Mohajer-6, the Nasir anti-ship cruise missile, Fakur air-to-air missile and the Qaher F-313 fighter jet were also put on display.
Iran’s Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan said the production of the Qaher F-313 and Kowsar jets was “a prelude to the production of heavy aircraft.”
Pointing to several crises in the Middle East and across the world, Rouhani said: “In our region, we have witnessed different crimes and acts of aggression by regional countries and sometimes by big powers and the U.S.”
The Iranian president emphasized that the “powers’ intervention and the cancerous tumor of Israel” have always been a source of concern and insecurity in the Middle East.
“[Striking] a regional balance and maintaining the defensive and deterrent power of a pivotal country like Iran, which has endangered big powers’ interests through its great [Islamic] Revolution and is conveying the message of justice and freedom to the world, are necessary,” Rouhani said.
The U.S. and its allies claim that Iran’s missile tests violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the July 2015 nuclear agreement reached between Iran and world powers.
The resolution calls on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.
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