Reuters, August 16 – Iran will hit Tel Aviv with its medium-range missiles if attacked, said an influential senior cleric yesterday.
"If they [United States and Israel] militarily attack Iran … They should be afraid of the day when our missiles with 2,000km range will hit Tel Aviv," Ahmad Khatami told state television.
Khatami sits on the Assembly of Experts, the body of 86 clerics that constitutionally supervises the country’s most powerful man, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Arms experts say Iran’s Shahab-3 missiles have a maximum range of about 2,000km, meaning they are capable of hitting Israel as well as US military bases in the Gulf.
US officials accuse Iran of planning to equip its missiles with nuclear warheads. Iran says it has no desire to have atomic weapons and is only developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, such as electricity generation.
Iranian military commanders have repeatedly warned they would not hesitate to deploy the Shahab-3 missiles if Iran came under attack over its disputed nuclear programme.
