Iran rejects US defense chief’s claims
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has dismissed Washington’s latest allegations against Iran as repeated lies.
On Saturday, Vahidi rejected the allegations made by former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates as baseless, IRNA reported.
On June 30, which was his last day in office, Gates accused Iran of inflicting casualties on US troops in Iraq and claimed that the Islamic Republic was likely to gain access to nuclear weapons in the next three years.
Vahidi advised US officials to revise their failed policies, adding that the recent missile drills conducted by Iranian forces proved that the West’s sanctions have had no impact on Iran’s military might.
The Islamic Republic started the 10-day Great Prophet 6 maneuver on Monday.
On the first day of the exercises, Iran announced that it had constructed underground missile silos and test-fired several Fateh-110 missiles. On Tuesday, Iran successfully test-fired 14 surface-to-surface missiles, including the Zelzal, Shahab-1, Shahab-2, and Shahab-3. One long-range and four medium-range Shahab missiles as well as nine Zelzal missiles were test-fired.
Iran says the Great Prophet 6 maneuver has defensive objectives and is being staged with the message of “peace and friendship.”
“The failure of the US plans in the region, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, is rooted in their wrong policies,” Vahidi said.
About a decade ago, US military officials claimed that Iran would gain access to nuclear weapons within three years, the Iranian defense minister said, noting, “Several years have passed since such claims were made and nothing happened. They have repeated their false claims several times.”
Source: presstv.ir
