U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed concern over an announcement yesterday by Iran that it had conducted the final test of its Shahab 3 long-range ballistic missile, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, July 7).

“We have long had very serious concerns about Iranian missile programs,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

U.S. officials said the latest Shahab 3 test was one of several conducted in recent years and was not a surprise.  Iran’s ballistic missile program poses “a threat to the region and a threat to U.S. interests in the region,” and would be addressed with various forms of pressure with “like-minded countries,” Boucher said.

Israel is also concerned about Iran’s progress in the development of the Shahab 3, which would have the ability to hit targets there, according to the Times.

“We are very concerned, especially since we know that Iran is seeking to acquire the nuclear weapon,” Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner told Agence France-Presse.  “The combination of Shahab 3 and the nuclear weapon would be a very serious threat on the stability of the region,” he said (Nazila Fathi, New York Times, July 8).

Israel’s Arrow missile interceptor system is capable of providing full protection against the Shahab 3, said Arye Herzog, head of the Homa Missile Defense program (see GSN, June 2).  Herzog added, however, that Israel still lacked full protection against the Shahab 4, a more advanced ballistic missile Iran has been reported as trying to develop (Israel Defense Forces Radio/BBC Monitoring International, July 8).

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