Iran tests missiles

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran tested its longest-range missiles Monday and warned they can reach any place that threatens the country, including Israel, parts of Europe and U.S. military bases in the Mideast.

The launch capped two days of war games and was condemned as a provocation by Western powers, which are demanding Tehran come clean about a newly revealed nuclear facility it has been secretly building.

The tests Sunday and again Monday added urgency to a key meeting this week between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany — an international front seeking clear answers about the direction of its nuclear program.

Iran’s missile program and its nuclear work — much of it carried out in secrecy — have long been a concern for the United States, Israel and its Western allies. They fear Tehran is intent on developing an atomic weapons capability and the missiles to deploy such warheads, despite Iran’s assurances it is only pursuing civilian nuclear power.

In the latest exercise, the powerful Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran’s missile program, successfully tested upgraded versions of Iran’s medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles, state television reported. Both can carry warheads and reach up to 1,200 miles, putting Israel, U.S. military bases in the Middle East and parts of Europe within striking distance.

The launchings were meant to display Iran’s military might and demonstrate its readiness to respond to any military threat.

“Iranian missiles are able to target any place that threatens Iran,” said Abdollah Araqi, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Iran conducted three rounds of missile tests in drills that began Sunday, two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed the country had been secretly developing an underground uranium enrichment facility. The Western powers warned Iran must open the site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, maintained the missile tests had nothing to do with the tension over the site, saying they were part of routine, long-planned military exercises.

That assertion was rejected by the United States and its European allies.