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New rocket with dummy of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount
Photo: WANA NEWS AGENCY / via REUTERS
The U.S. has described a new intermediate-range missile from Iran as a threat to international security. Tehran's "development and proliferation of ballistic missiles" poses a "serious threat to regional and international security" and remains a threat to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a State Department spokesman said Thursday.
A few hours earlier, Iran had unveiled the Cheibar missile, which, according to the Iranian Ministry of Defense, has the longest range of this type of weapon to date at 2000,<> kilometers.
The presentation of the medium-range weapon was broadcast live by Iranian state television, with a replica of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount next to the rocket.
Iran has been an enemy of Israel for decades. Tehran has long provided military and logistical support for violent movements against Israel. These include the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also several Palestinian groups such as the militant organization "Islamic Jihad". Just recently, "Islamic Jihad" fired hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory for days, and Israel, in turn, attacked the Gaza Strip and killed, among other things, a high-ranking representative of the "Islamic Jihad".
Talks with Iran on a revival of the international Iran nuclear deal are currently at an impasse. The agreement, concluded in 2015, was intended to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, but did not concern Iran's missile program.
Indictment of Chinese for rocket parts
In connection with the program, the United States had indicted the Chinese citizen Qiao Xiangjiang a week ago. He allegedly violated U.S. sanctions and supplied components to Iran to build weapons of mass destruction. Qiao, who is believed to be in China, belongs to the network of businessman Li Fangwei, who also calls himself Karl Lee. He has been hunted by secret services for years, and US authorities have offered a reward of up to five million dollars.
At the end of April, SPIEGEL and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) reported on the world's most dangerous businessman and revealed that Li is probably in a Chinese prison – presumably the result of an agreement between Washington and Beijing.
According to the indictment, Qiao allegedly worked for the company Sinotech (Dalian) Carbon & Graphite Manufacturing Corporation and supplied Iran with isostatic graphite, a building material for rocket engines, from 2019 to 2022.
Sinotech operates a graphite factory in a village in the area of the city of Wafangdian, about 140 kilometers north of the port metropolis of Dalian. In the courtyard of the plant, you can see tons of graphite, piled up several meters high. In June 2006, Sinotech was founded. Li Fangwei owns 24.3 percent of the company's shares, the rest to his younger brother Li Fangdong. Since 2014, the company has been on a U.S. sanctions list.
jok/AFP