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TEHERAN - IRAN test-fired nine missiles yesterday and warned the United States and Israel that it was ready to retaliate if they attacked it over its disputed nuclear projects.
Washington, which says Iran seeks to build atomic bombs, told Teheran to halt further tests if it wanted the world to trust it.
General Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying the exercise would 'demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language'.
Yesterday's war games were being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway where about 40 per cent of the world's oil passes through.
Footage from the official Irna news agency showed at least three missiles fired simultaneously. It said the barrage included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of about 2,000km and is armed with a one-tonne conventional warhead.
'Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch,' said Gen Salami, according to Irna.
The tests come less than a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that Israel and the US could be preparing to attack his country, calling the possibility a 'funny joke'.
'I assure you that there won't be any war in the future,' he told a news conference on Tuesday during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of Muslim developing nations.
Iranian officials have been issuing a mix of conciliatory and bellicose statements in recent weeks about the possibility of a clash with the US and Israel.
A White House spokesman called the tests 'completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world'.
'The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity,' said Mr Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council.
Israel's military sent warplanes over the eastern Mediterranean for a large military exercise last month that US officials described as a possible rehearsal for a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which the West fears are aimed at producing atomic weapons.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for generating electricity, not weapons.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS
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