Iran tests new short-range missiles in war games

Iran tested two short-range missiles as its elite Revolutionary Guards began several days of war games on Sunday, state television reported.

Iran's state-owned al-Alam and Press TV channels reported that the missiles fired were of the Tondar and Fateh 110 type.

On Saturday, the Guards Corps said it would begin several days of missile war games codenamed Great Prophet four from Sunday in a bid to "maintain and improve" the deterrent capability of Iran's armed forces.

The Guards' air force commander Hossein Salami said the main aim of the maneuvers was to "evaluate the technical developments recently achieved in surface-to-surface missiles," Revolutionary Guards website Sepahnews reported.

Regular maneuvers

Iran stages regular military maneuvers in strategic Gulf waters, showcasing its long- and medium-range missiles as well as other weaponry.

The Islamic republic has in the past threatened to target American bases in the region and to block the strategic Gulf Strait of Hormuz waterway for oil tankers if its nuclear sites are attacked.

Last May, Iran said it had tested a missile that defense analysts say could hit Israel and bases in the Gulf.

On Sept. 17, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to halt a drive launched by the previous administration of George W. Bush to deploy by 2013 missile interceptors in Poland and a powerful tracking radar in the neighboring Czech Republic.

Washington had said the plan aimed to ward off threats from Iran, but Russia slammed it as a menace to security on its doorstep. Warsaw and Prague broke from the crumbling communist bloc in 1989 and joined NATO in 1999.

Obama said he had decided to replace the shield with a more mobile system using mainly sea-based missile interceptors.

Israel urges sanctions

The missile maneuvers coincide with increased tension in Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, after last week's disclosure by the Islamic Republic that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant.

Israel and the United States have never ruled out a military option to thwart Iran's nuclear drive, which they suspect of having a military aim. Tehran denies the charge.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for more sanctions Sunday in a series of phone calls with U.S. congressmen and senators after Iran's disclosure, the left-leaning Haaretz daily said.

"Action must be taken in all areas to increase pressure on Iran and impose crippling sanctions on it," the report quoted him as saying. "If not now, then when?"

On Saturday, Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the new plant on the road from Tehran to the holy city of Qom will be put under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the decision to grant access to the IAEA.

"It is always welcome when Iran makes a decision to comply with the international rules and regulations, and particularly with respect to the IAEA," she told reporters in New York.

Hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who returned from the United Nations on Saturday, said the disclosure of the new facility was a success for Iran.

"This issue was turned around in a way that (now) we believe they regret bringing it up," he told reporters of the anger expressed by Western leaders over the plant.

"They may pursue this issue through the media but it has become a firm blow to the arrogance," in reference to the United States and other Western powers, he said.

They may pursue this issue through the media but it has become a firm blow to the arrogance

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad