Netanyahu says Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran is developing a new type of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, which, according to him, could pose a threat to the United States. "Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000 kilometers," the head of the Hebrew government said in an interview with Ben Shapiro published this Tuesday. "What does that mean? Add another 3,000 kilometers and they have in their sights, under their atomic weapons, the city of New York as a target, Washington, Boston, Miami, Mar-a-Lago [Donald Trump's residence in Florida]," he listed. In this context, Netanyahu warned of the "enormous danger" this represents. "Don't want to be under the nuclear weapon of these people who are not necessarily rational and who chant 'death to America'," he said. In September of this year, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, highlighted the importance of peaceful nuclear energy for his country, while reiterating that Tehran does not possess nuclear weapons. "Since we do not have nuclear weapons and our decision is not to manufacture or use them, we have increased enrichment to 60%, which is very good," said the ayatollah, who evoked the "decades of fruitless pressure from the oppressive powers" against the Persian country's nuclear program.

Iranian Nuclear Program

The alarm that the Iranian nuclear program generated in part of the international community led to sanctions being imposed against the Islamic Republic, some of which were lifted in 2015 after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which imposed strict limits on the Iranian nuclear program. That agreement was negotiated between Iran, Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the EU, and the United States, but it was undermined by Washington's unilateral withdrawal during Donald Trump's first term in 2018. According to Iranian authorities, their nuclear program has exclusively peaceful objectives, such as energy generation, the development of healthcare and agriculture, food preservation, industry, and scientific research. Following the United States' withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, under which Iran limited its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, the Islamic Republic has again increased its enrichment rate, reaching 60%. This uranium enrichment rate is approaching the 90% needed to build nuclear weapons, which worries Western countries, despite Iranian authorities insisting that they are not developing this type of weaponry.

While Western countries condemn the program, Israel has carried out various acts of sabotage in an attempt to undermine the development of the Iranian project. Since 2010, Israeli intelligence services have carried out sabotage, attacks, and cyberattacks against Iranian nuclear program facilities, and have assassinated nuclear physicists from the Persian nation. In its incursions in June of this year, Israel also attacked nuclear program facilities and reported the assassination of at least nine Iranian scientists.