It isn’t clear if this is a real policy decision or just an announcement made to avoid offending countries like China, India and Russia, whose votes Iran wants to get in the United Nations.
The Islamic Republic has taken both positions on the range of its missiles over the years—with officials sometimes saying the next goal is a longer range and sometimes saying they do not need any longer range. The shuffling back and forth does not give much confidence that the latest announcement is an honest statement of policy.
The new policy position or propaganda statement was made by Gen. Mohammad-Ali Jafari, the commander of the Pasdaran, the force that handles Iran’s missile program.
“Although we are capable of increasing the range of our missiles, we don’t think it will be necessary because our out-of-region enemy—the Zionist regime—is within the range of our missiles already,” he said. The claimed 2,000-kilometer range gives Iran just enough range to cover all of Israel.
“As for the American forces—if they were to back Israel’s threats—they would be closer to us than them [the Israelis] and would be well within the range of our firepower as well,” Jafari said, referring to American bases and ships around the Persian Gulf area.
He avoided mentioning that in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in the air attacks on Libya a few weeks ago, the United States flew bombers from a base in Missouri roundtrip without landing anywhere. Nor did he mention that the US Navy fired Tomahawk cruise missiles from underwater at Iraq and Libya.