Top Iranian commander announces new long-range suicide drones designed to strike as far as Tel Aviv.
By: WIN Staff
Iran has developed a new long-range drone aircraft capable of striking Israeli cities, a senior Iranian military official claimed Monday.
Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari, chief of the Iranian military’s ground forces, was quoted in a report by the semi-official Iranian news outlet Mehr News Monday morning that a new drone aircraft, the Arash-2 – an upgrade of the Arash-1 – was designed to increase its range, allowing it to strike Israeli cities.
“We have specially designed this drone for Haifa and Tel Aviv. This is a unique drone that was developed for this task,” the general said, vowing Iran “will unveil this drone’s capabilities in future exercises.”
The new suicide drone, Heidari said, has unique capabilities, without offering details.
Less than two months ago, the Iranian navy unveiled its new drone carrier division, featuring offensive and surveillance aerial drones launched from seven vessels.
General Abdolrahim Mousavi claimed the division will extend Iran’s “long arm” by hundreds of kilometers.
Iran has made extensive use of military drones in recent years, opening a drone manufacturing plant in the central Asian country of Tajikistan.
In February, the U.S. Air Force shot down two Iranian drone aircraft flying in Iraqi airspace en route to Israel.
The unmanned aerial vehicles, Shahed 136s, were en route to Israel on Feb. 14 when they were downed near the Iraqi city of Erbil. The Shahed 136 is a “kamikaze” drone with an estimated range of 2,000 km (1,242 miles) that self-destructs upon hitting its target. The drone is capable of loitering over targets before striking.
That same month, Iran reportedly suffered the loss of hundreds of drones in an airbase in the western part of the country in an aerial strike by UAVs that it blamed on Israel. Jerusalem did not comment on the alleged attack, which Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen said was launched from Kurdish-controlled territory in Iraq.
In related news, World Israel News reported that the Iran nuclear deal is dead, a senior Israeli official said on Monday, adding that Israel had revealed intelligence to the accord’s American and U.S. partners that exposed Iranian lies throughout the recent talks to revive it.
“There’s not going to be a nuclear deal, according to the Americans and most Europeans involved. They say we have a lot of reservations about the possibility of a nuclear agreement. Everyone has their own excuse,” the senior official, who is part of Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s delegation in Germany, said.
“We gave information to the Europeans that proved that the Iranians are lying while talks are still happening,” he said, according to The Times of Israel.
According to the Israeli official, Jerusalem phased U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley out of discussions on Iran.
“This is out of the hands of Malley’s camp by now. The decisive talks that we are doing with the U.S. are no longer in Malley’s hands,” he said.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, also said the Europeans in particular are “afraid” that the Russians will help the Iranians evade sanctions.
“It’s time to start a strategic dialogue with the Americans and Europeans about a longer stronger agreement. But what we need now is for the Americans to put a credible military threat (in place,) and everyone to push for a better agreement.”
His words echoed those of Lapid, who said earlier that talks to revive the deal had “failed” and that it was time to come up with a new strategy for curtailing Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
