Iran warned Western powers on Friday that armed forces would hit back ”like lightning” against any attack as it crowed over its military prowess and showed off firepower at a major army parade.
Thousands of members of the armed forces and the whole panoply of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal were on display at the parade, including the Shahab-3, a weapon whose range includes arch-enemy Israel.
”We want peace but we warn the expansionists not to think of an aggression against Iran as we can defend the fatherland and Islam,” Vice-President Parviz Davoodi warned.
”Our lions are so powerful that they can strike the enemy like lightning and destroy him,” he added.
The comments of Davoodi — standing in for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has yet to return from a visit to the United Nations in New York — come at a time of mounting tension over Tehran’s contested nuclear programme.
The United States has never ruled out using force to make Iran comply over its atomic drive that Washington charges is aimed at making nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian energy purposes only.
Iran has also never been shy of warning it would retaliate if the Islamic republic was attacked, and the parade included its longest-range missile, the Shahab-3, which has the range to hit Israel and US installations in the Middle East.
”Are you not proud to see the Shahab-3, a missile with a range of 2 000km?” boomed the commentator over the loudspeakers as two green Shahab-3s were driven past the parade ground on the back of a truck.
The missile was up until last year believed to have a range of 1 300km but Iran has worked on extending its range.
However, the missiles appeared to lack the anti-Israeli and anti-US slogans that were daubed on the weapon at last year’s event and caused European diplomats present to stage a walk-out in protest.
A succession of other missiles were also on display, including the short-range Fajr and the medium-range Nazeat, Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Zelzal.
Thousands of soldiers clutching their rifles marched past Davoodi and other dignitaries to the sound of martial music in an event that has become Iran’s most significant annual display of its military might.
The parade, which marks the anniversary of the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, took place just opposite the mausoleum built for Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on the outskirts of Tehran.
”Our armed forces have no need for their power to be based on atomic weapons; this power is based on our convictions,” said Davoodi, restating Tehran’s denial of US allegations it is seeking nuclear weapons.
While Iran remains at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear programme, it has been engaged in talks with the European Union to find a solution and in New York Ahmadinejad said that discussions were on the ”right path”.
Davoodi also played up the importance of major war games that Iran has staged in the past month, which have seen it claim the development of new missiles and warplanes.
”In the recent manoeuvres the armed forces showed their power, notably in the areas that were once the monopoly of the great powers,” said Davoodi.
”We will resist until the end,” proclaimed a slogan on the main grandstand erected for the parade, which coincided with a march to Beirut by supporters of Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah to mark its resistance against Israel.
Among the thousands of armed-forces personnel marching past the main grandstand were ethnic minority members of Iran’s Basij militia in their national dress, including Kurds, Baluch, and for the first time Arabs. — Sapa-AFP