(Tehran) Iran launched a satellite on Saturday using a rocket built by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, state media reported, in a move that Westerners fear will help the country advance its ballistic missile program.
Iran called the launch a success, which would be the second time a satellite has been put into orbit using the rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch.
Images released by Iranian media showed the rocket being launched on the outskirts of the town of Shahroud, some 350 kilometres east of the capital, Tehran.
The launch comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East over the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to levels close to those used to make weapons, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran’s program.
Iran has identified the model of the satellite-carrying rocket as the Qaem-100which his militia used last January for another successful launch. Qaem means “right” in Iranian Persian. The solid-fuel rocket put the satellite Chamran-1weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds), into a 550-kilometer orbit, state media reported.
The U.S. military and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Iranian launch.
Washington had previously said Iran’s satellite launches defied a U.N. Security Council resolution and called on Tehran not to engage in activities involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. However, U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
Under the relatively moderate rule of former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic slowed its space program for fear of increasing tensions with the West. Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, who came to power in 2021, has pushed the program forward. Mr. Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died in a helicopter crash last May.
It is unclear what Iran’s new president, reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, wants for the program since he was silent on the issue during his campaign.
According to the U.S. intelligence community’s global threat assessment this year, Iran’s development of satellite launchers would “shorten the time frame” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after breaking its nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran has enough enriched uranium to make “several” nuclear weapons, if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly warned.
Iran has consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, is purely civilian. However, U.S. intelligence and the IAEA say Iran had a military nuclear program until 2003.