Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Iran claimed on Tuesday that it had created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound, adding a new weapon to its arsenal as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program, the AP reported.

The new missile — called Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi — was unveiled even as Iran said it would reopen its diplomatic posts on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after reaching a détente with Riyadh following years of conflict.

The AP also reported that the foreign ministry’s spokesman, Nasser Kanaani said that the Iranian Embassy in Riyadh, its consulate general in Jeddah, and office of the permanent representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation would officially reopen on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to establish diplomatic ties, in a Chinese-brokered deal, representing a major breakthrough in the region, the report indicated.

Saudi Arabia broke ties with Iran in 2016 after protesters invaded Saudi diplomatic posts in Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashhad during demonstrations triggered by the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others in the oil-rich Kingdom, the AP reported.

Kanaani added that Iran’s Embassy in Riyadh and its consulate general in Jeddah had already begun operating to help Iranian pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage, set to commence by the end of June.

As to the hypersonic missile, the AP reported that the tightly choreographed segment on Iranian state television apparently sought to show that Tehran’s hard-line government can still deploy arms against its enemies across much of the Middle East.

“Today we feel that the deterrent power has been formed,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at the event, the AP reported. “This power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries.”

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace program, unveiled what appeared to be a model of the missile. According to the AP report, Hajizadeh claimed the missile had a range of up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles). That’s about mid-range for Iran’s expansive ballistic missile arsenal, which the Guard has built up over the years as Western sanctions largely prevent it from accessing advanced weaponry.

“There exists no system that can rival or counter this missile,” Hajizadeh claimed.

That claim, however, depends on how maneuverable the missile is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them, as was reported by the AP. Tuesday’s event showed what appeared to be a moveable nozzle for the Fattah, which could allow it to change trajectories in flight. The AP report also indicated that the more irregular the missile’s flight path, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.

Iranian officials did not release footage of a Fattah successfully launching and then striking a target. Hajizadeh later said that there had been a ground test of the missile’s engine. The AP report indicated that a ground test involves a rocket motor being put on a stand and fired to check its abilities while launching a missile with that rocket motor is much more complex.

Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability, the AP report said.  Iran described the Fattah as being able to reach Mach 15 — which is 15 times the speed of sound.

China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America, as was reported by the AP. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability isn’t a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. The AP also said that Ukraine’s air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.

Gulf Arab countries allied with the U.S. widely use the Patriot missile system in the region. The AP report also indicated that Israel, Iran’s main rival in the Mideast, has its own robust air defenses as well.

In November, Hajizadeh initially claimed that Iran had created a hypersonic missile, without offering evidence to support it, the AP reported. That claim came during the nationwide protests that followed the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police. Tuesday’s announcement came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Also on Tuesday, the AP reported that the U.S. said it is sanctioning a group of people and firms from Iran, China and Hong Kong associated with the development of Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The network of seven people and six firms “facilitated procurement of sensitive and critical parts and technology for key actors in Iran’s ballistic missile development,” including Iran’s defense ministry and its affiliated firms, according to the Treasury Department and as was reported by the AP.

Among the sanctions targets are the China-based firm Zhejiang Qingji, which has allegedly sold centrifuges and other materials to an Iran-based firm affiliated with the nation’s defense ministry. The AP report said that also designated for sanctions were several executives at Qingji and the Hong Kong-based Lingoe Process Engineering Limited, which the Treasury department said served as a front company for the Chinese firm.

Also named is Iran’s Defense Attaché in Beijing, Davoud Damghani, who is alleged to coordinate purchases from China for Iran end-users, the AP reported. Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are also high amid months of anti-government protests in Iran and Western anger at Iran’s export of attack drones to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, the AP report stated.

Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the U.S. “will continue to target illicit transnational procurement networks that covertly support Iran’s ballistic missile production and other military programs.”

In a related development, the Tazpit Press Service reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s “surrender” to Iran is a “black mark” on the UN watchdog.

TPS reported that he was referring to the IAEA’s decision to end its probe into a nuclear facility in Marivan, in western Iran, where traces of uranium were found in 2019. According to Iran, the IAEA also closed a separate investigation into uranium particles found in the underground Fordow facility.

“Regarding Iran – Iran continues to lie to the International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA. The IAEA’s surrender to Iranian pressure is a black mark on its conduct,” Netanyahu said, as was reported by TPS.

“We revealed information to the world that we brought Iran’s secret nuclear archive to Israel five years ago. Information that unequivocally proved that Iran violates the inspection agreements and that it operates in the nuclear field for military purposes and not for innocent civilian purposes,” the Prime Minister added, referring to the Mossad’s 2018 theft of an entire archive of Iranian nuclear documents.

“The excuses that Iran has provided in the years since then, for having nuclear material in prohibited places, these excuses are not only unreliable, they are not even technically possible. The lax conduct of the IAEA in the face of these failed excuses sends a message to the rulers of Iran that they are not required to pay any price for their violations and that they can continue to deceive the international community in their attempts to obtain nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, as was indicated in the TPS report.

“If the Atomic Energy Agency becomes a political organization, its monitoring activities in Iran will have no meaning, nor will the reports it produces on Iran’s nuclear activities have any meaning. In any case, Israel under our leadership does not stand by. We stand our ground firmly both in public and behind closed doors,” he added.

Netanyahu also said that Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi returned from the US where they held high level discussions regarding Iran, TPS reported.

On Monday, the AP reported that the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said that the International Atomic Energy Agency will “never politicize” its work in Iran. His comment came after Netanyahu accused it of capitulating to Iranian pressure and said that his agency has been “very fair but firm.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after a confidential report from the IAEA last week said that its investigators had closed off their investigation of traces of man-made uranium found at Marivan, near the city of Abadeh, about 525 kilometers (325 miles) southeast of Tehran, the AP reported.

Analysts had repeatedly linked Marivan to a possible secret Iranian military nuclear program and accused Iran of conducting high-explosives tests there in the early 2000s, the report indicated.

Asked on Monday about Netanyahu’s criticism, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that his agency’s work is “neutral, it is impartial, it is technical,” the AP reported.

“We will always say things as they are,” Grossi told reporters on the first day of a regular meeting in Vienna of the IAEA board of governors. The AP report also said that Grossi added that he would “never enter into a polemic” with the head of government of a member of the IAEA. “We never politicize. We have our standards and apply them always,” he said. “The politicization is in the eye of the beholder,” Grossi added.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, and Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he wouldn’t allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, as was reported by the AP. He has said international diplomacy should be accompanied by a serious military option, and hinted that Israel would be prepared to strike Iran on its own if necessary.

Before Netanyahu’s comments, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a statement on Friday that the explanations provided by Iran for the presence of nuclear material at the Marivan site are “not reliable or technically possible,” according to the AP report.

But Grossi insisted that the IAEA will “never, ever” water down its safeguards standards. “We have been strict, technically impartial and, as I like to say, very fair but firm,” he said, as was reported by the AP.

Also on Monday, the AP reported that the U.S. Navy said its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “harassed” it.

Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Navy said in a statement, as was reported by the AP.  It offered black-and-white images it said came from a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which showed three small ships close to the commercial ship.

The U.S. Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter.

“The situation deescalated approximately an hour later when the merchant vessel confirmed the fast-attack craft departed the scene,” the Navy said, as was reported by the AP. “The merchant ship continued transiting the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.”

The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, sees 20% of the world’s oil pass through it.

While the Navy did not identify the vessel involved, ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Venture erratically changed course as it traveled through the strait at the time of the incident. Its location also matched information about the incident given by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military operation overseeing traffic in the region, the AP said. The vessel also resembled the images released by the Navy.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later quoted Guard Rear Adm. Abbas Gholamshahi claiming that his vessels simply responded to the distress signal from the ship, according to the AP report. However, the signal came because armed men were seen aboard the small vessels identified by the Navy as belonging to the Guard.

This latest incident comes after a series of maritime incidents involving Iran following the U.S. unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

The AP also reported that the suspected American seizure of the Suez Rajan, a tanker linked to a U.S. private equity firm believed to have been carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil off Singapore, likely sparked Tehran to recently take the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet. That ship carried Kuwaiti crude oil for energy firm Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California.

(Sources: AP.com, TPS)