Iran says will deploy new missiles if Israel attacks again
'The missiles used in the 12-day war were manufactured... a few years ago,' Defence Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
'Today, we have manufactured and possess missiles with far greater capabilities than previous missiles, and if the Zionist enemy embarks on the adventure again, we will undoubtedly use them.'
In mid-June, Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a war in which Iran responded with missile and drone strikes.
The Israeli offensive killed senior military commanders, nuclear scientists and hundreds of others, striking both military sites and residential areas.
The United States briefly joined the war with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24.
Iranian officials have since warned that another round of fighting could erupt at any moment, emphasising that Tehran does not seek war but remains prepared for any confrontation.
On Monday, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Iran should be 'prepared at every moment for confrontation'.
'We are not even in a ceasefire; we are in a cessation of hostilities,' he added.
Iranian media reported that the army is to begin a two-day military exercise on Thursday, featuring a wide range of short and medium-range cruise missiles.
Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern about Iran's missile programme, calling it a threat to regional security.
In July, France called for a 'comprehensive deal' with Tehran that covers not only its nuclear programme but also its missile programme and its regional ambitions. Iran has insisted that its military capabilities are not up for negotiation.
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Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donbas and abandon NATO bid, sources say
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Read More: Russia seeks say in Ukraine peace deal In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin's offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people. In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Dontesk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine - which make up the Donbas - plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender. In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added. Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to US estimates and open-source data. Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said. Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the US-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said. The district her village is in - Huairou - and neighbouring Miyun district, just on the outskirts of Beijing, received a year's worth of rain in a single week. Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. Ukraine's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine. "If we're talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that," he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. "It is a matter of our country's survival, involving the strongest defensive lines." Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country's constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance's membership. The White House and NATO didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals. Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a US-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically. "Openness to 'peace' on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise," he added. "The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details." Trump: Putin wants to see it ended Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps. The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia's terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground. "Putin is ready for peace - for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump," one of the people said. The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added. 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Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Netanyahu says Israel to begin Gaza ceasefire negotiations to end war, release hostages
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Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
21 countries sign joint statement condemning Israel's West Bank settlement project
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