Iran prepares to test-launch intercontinental missile

Monday, July 15, 1999

WASHINGTON ] -- Iran is developing with Russian aid an intercontinental ballistic missile that is aimed at striking the United States, with its first test-launch planned for later this summer, a House committee was told.

Kenneth Timmerman, president of Middle East Data Project, told the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics, that the Islamic regime in Tehran is preparing to test the Kosar missile. He said the missile will be more advanced than either the Shihab-3 or Shihab-4 now being developed.

"Iran is preparing to test a new multi-stage missile that if successful will give it the capability of reaching the continental United States," Timmerman, a former congressional analyst on Iran, said on Tuesday. "The new missile, code-named Kosar, is being designed with direct assistance from Russian aerospace entities."

Kosar means stream of eternal life in Persian. Timmerman said the missile would be tested at Iran's Shahroud missile range later this summer.

Western intelligence agencies reported as early as 1997 of Iranian plans to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles of a range up to 10,000 kilometers [6.200 miles]. But in reports to the U.S. Congress and European parliaments the agencies said such a missile was a long way off.

Intelligence sources said the priority was the Shihab-3 and the Shihab-4 with ranges of 1,300 and 2,200 kilometers respectively. The missile development program, they said, was initiated with North Korean help but was joined by Russian companies.

Timmerman said the Kosar missile would be powered with a version of Russia's RD-216 liquid fuel booster engine, employed in the Soviet SS-5 ballistic missiles. The RD-216 was developed by Energomash, a company under the direct control of the Russian Space Agency.

Russian government agencies, Timmerman said, have ignored Clinton administration efforts to stop the flow of Russian technology to Iran. He said Russian officials would hear complaints by their U.S. counterparts of the Russian technology transfers and then plug up the leaks of information to prevent further monitoring by Washington.

"For the better part of a decade, Russia has been training an entire generation of Iranian weapons designers," Timmerman said. "This has been a conscious policy decision on the part of the Russian government, not some ad-hoc arrangement by unemployed scientists."

Timmerman pointed to the Russian Space Agency as the worst proliferator of missile technology. "If the RSA wanted to shut down the missile pipeline to Iran, it could do so tomorrow," he said. "Obviously, until now, the RSA has not been made to feel it had anything to lose by continuing this trade with Iran."

On Wednesday, the White House released a statement that asserted that the Clinton administration has succeeded in stopping "the flow of arms and sensitive technologies to Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and other countries. The U.S. has pressed Russian and other potential suppliers not to assist Iranian and Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles."