TEHRAN – A top military official restated Iran’s statement that Israel and the U.S. bases in the region and are within Iran’s missile reach. The statement came as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps successfully test-fired 14 locally-produced missiles on Tuesday.

“U.S. targets in the region and Israel are within the range of Iran’s missiles,” Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, told reporters on Tuesday.
Iran has repeatedly warned that it will not hesitate for a moment to retaliate forcefully if Israel does any attack against Iran.
Hajizadeh said Israel is just 1,200 kilometers away from Iran while range of Iran’s missiles is 2000 kilometers and this shows that “we can hit it (Israel) from Damghan or Semnan with our missiles.”
“The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime,” Hajizadeh stated.
He added, “The Americans have reduced our labors. Their military bases in the region are in a range of 130, 250 and maximum 700 kilometers in Afghanistan which we can hit with these missiles.”
Asked if Iranian missiles posed a threat to Europe, Hajizadeh said the 2000-kilometer range had been chosen precisely with Israel and U.S. bases, while Iran had the technological know how to build missiles with a longer range.
“Our extra-regional enemies are the U.S. and the Zionist regime and we do not feel a threat from any other country, thus we do not need missiles with a range longer than 2000 kilometers,” he noted.
---Test-fire
On Tuesday, the IRGC test-fired 14 locally produced missiles with different ranges. The tests came during the second day of the first stage of the Great Prophet 6 war game.
Fourteen domestically-manufactured missiles, including nine Zelzal, two Shahab 1, two Shahab 2, and one Shahab 3 were fired and successfully hit the mock targets, Colonel Ali Asghar Qelichkhani stated.
The deputy commander of IRGC, Hossein Salami, IRGC Aerospace Organization chief Hajizadeh, and a number of other high-ranking military officials were present at the war game.
The second stage of the war game, which began on Monday, will be conducted on July 5.
Salami said the IRGC’s strategy is defensive but the tactics are offensive.
“Our strategy is defensive but our tactics are offensive,” Salami, the IRGC deputy chief, noted.
He added, “We will not be the initiator of any (military) operation, but our tactics are specifically offensive.”
Salami also said in the near future the IRGC will test-fire missiles on movable targets at the sea.
On military threats against Iran, he said, “Our finger is on the trigger.”