Iran says it has developed new, better missiles; will use them if Israel attacks again – The Times of Israel
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Iran Says It Is Ready for Any New Israeli Attack, Unveils Advanced Missiles
Iran says it is ready for any new Israeli attack. Warning comes after Israel launched a 12-day campaign against Iran. Iran says it has developed new missiles with greater range. Iran has warned that a new conflict could break out at any time, and that it is prepared to defend itself if it is attacked. The U.S. has warned Iran that its nuclear program is a threat to regional security.
Iran Says It Is Ready for Any New Israeli Attack, Unveils Advanced Missiles
Iran announced on Wednesday that it is prepared for any new Israeli attack, claiming it has developed missiles with far greater capabilities than those used in the recent 12-day conflict.
Defence Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh told the official IRNA news agency, “The missiles used in the 12-day war were manufactured a few years ago. Today, we possess missiles with far greater capabilities, and if the Zionist enemy embarks on the adventure again, we will undoubtedly use them.”
The warning comes after mid-June, when Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, sparking a conflict in which Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes. The Israeli offensive reportedly killed senior military commanders, nuclear scientists, and hundreds of others, targeting both military sites and residential areas. The United States briefly joined the conflict with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24. Yet Iranian officials have repeatedly cautioned that another round of fighting could erupt at any moment. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on Monday, “We are not even in a ceasefire; we are in a cessation of hostilities,” stressing the need for Iran to remain ready at all times.
Iranian media reported that the army will begin a two-day military exercise on Thursday, showcasing a wide range of short- and medium-range cruise missiles.
Western governments have expressed concern over Iran’s missile program, warning that it poses a threat to regional security. In July, France called for a “comprehensive deal” with Tehran addressing not just its nuclear program but also its missile development and regional ambitions. Iran, however, maintains that its military capabilities are not negotiable.
Iran says it has developed new, better missiles; will use them if Israel attacks again
Defense Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh says Iran has developed missiles with greater capabilities than those used during the recent war. Comments come after a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that another war with Israel or the United States could begin at any time. The 12-day war opened on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack against Tehran’s nuclear and military capabilities. The attacks killed 31 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.. Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Iran retaliated by launching 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization, but Iran has denied this.
“The missiles used in the 12-day war were manufactured… a few years ago,” Defense 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.”
Nassirzadeh’s comments came after a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that another war with Israel or the United States could begin at any time.
“We are not in a ceasefire, we are in a stage of war,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme LeaderAli Khamenei, told Iranian media. “I think another war may happen, and after that, there may be no more wars.”
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Nassirzadeh was speaking on Wednesday with Iranian media outlets on the sidelines of a meeting with allied military personnel, who were visiting the Islamic Republic ahead of the country’s National Defense Industry Day on August 22.
According to the semi-official Mehr News Agency, Nassirzadeh spoke extensively about Iran’s “success” during its 12-day war with Israel, which opened on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack against Tehran’s nuclear and military capabilities.
He claimed that Israel had not expected Iran to be able to launch a counterattack as “extensively and precisely” as it did, asserting that 90 percent of all ballistic missiles reached their intended targets.
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“Unlike the cowardly Zionist regime, which targeted military commanders, scientists, innocent women and children, civilian infrastructure and industrial centers, residential homes, medical centers, relief forces, prisons and the national media, the Islamic Republic of Iran deliberately chose its missile targets,” he proclaimed.
Contrary to Nassirzadeh’s claims, Iran’s powerful ballistic missiles not only targeted military bases and research centers, but also damaged 2,305 homes in 240 buildings, along with two universities and a hospital.
The attacks killed 31 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.
Nassirzadeh said that Iran had not only achieved victory over Israel, but also over the US — which joined Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities — and any countries that offered assistance in defending against the ballistic missile attacks.
“On the other hand stood the Islamic Republic of Iran, which, after more than 40 years of sanctions, relied solely on the capabilities of its fully indigenous defense industries,” Nassirzadeh bragged.
He claimed that Iran had agreed to cease its attacks on Israel not because it was backed into a corner, but because it wanted to prevent “the expansion of crisis and war in the region.”
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“However, we have no trust in the Zionist regime and its supporter, the US, and their adherence to commitments,” he warned. “Should the other side continue its adventurism and hostilities, this time Iran’s response — given our knowledge of our enemy’s weaknesses — will be deadly, surprising, painful, and beyond calculation.”
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel.
Iran’s Conflict With Israel and the United States
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The outbreak of war between Israel, a close U.S. ally, and the Palestinian Iran-backed militant group Hamas in October 2023 has escalated tensions between Iran and Israel. Iran-backed proxy forces ramped up strikes in protest of Israel’s military incursion into the Gaza Strip, including more than two hundred attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Iraq and Syria. In response, the United States ordered air strikes on two Iran-backed facilities on October 26, 2023, and eighty-five more Iran-affiliated targets in the two countries on February 2, 2024. The Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon —both actors in Iran’s axis of resistance—also launched attacks from the Red Sea and Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, spurring fears of regional spillover.
In 2024, confrontation between Israel and Iran shifted from indirect, proxy-based hostilities to direct exchanges of strikes. On April 1, a suspected Israeli air strike against an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria, killed two of its generals and five military advisors. Iran retaliated by launching over three hundred drone and missile attacks , the first time Iran had directly targeted Israel. Following Israel’s killing of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles against Israel in October 2024. Israel then launched its largest direct attack on Iran, targeting its air defenses and missile production facilities. Israel’s decimation of Hamas and Hezbollah leadership , coupled with the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, considerably weakened Iran’s axis of resistance in 2024.
Upon returning to office in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump restored his maximum pressure campaign against Tehran while also initiating negotiations on its nuclear program—the first direct U.S.-Iran talks since he withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal in 2018. Israel was wholly opposed to the negotiations and has maintained an unwavering commitment to dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli officials argue that Iran’s clandestine efforts to develop nuclear weapons would fundamentally alter the regional balance of power, posing a direct danger to Israel’s survival.
On June 12, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared Iran was violating its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in twenty years, prompting Iran to announce it would open a secret uranium enrichment site. The next day, Israel launched a unilateral military strike against Iran, targeting nuclear facilities, missile factories, senior military officials, and nuclear scientists. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the attack “an act of war,” and Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and dozens of ballistic missiles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the operation as a last-resort effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Although the Trump administration had recently resumed nuclear negotiations , President Trump increasingly voiced support for Israel’s objectives and signaled his openness to regime change in Tehran. The United States stated it was not involved in the operation, but Trump claimed that Iran had brought the attack on itself by refusing to accept an agreement.
Following a week of air strikes between Israel and Iran, the United States directly intervened in the conflict, attacking three Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz with bunker-buster bombs on June 21. The Trump administration claimed the strikes significantly hindered Iran’s capacity to achieve weapons-grade uranium, but the head of the UN nuclear watchdog assessed the program was set back by a matter of months. Trump is the first U.S. president to attack another country’s nuclear program and the first to explicitly join Israel in an attack on an adversary. Iran retaliated on June 23, launching a missile attack on U.S. forces stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar; no casualties were reported. Trump announced a ceasefire later that day. Although both sides accused the other of continuing strikes , the truce has largely held.
History of Iran’s Nuclear Program
Iran has pursued a nuclear program since at least 1957, with varying degrees of success. During a war with Iraq, Iran decided to develop nuclear weapons to ensure its security in the late 1980s. Consequently, throughout the 1990s Iran pursued agreements with China and Russia to support the program’s research. In the summer of 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella organization made up of Iranian dissident groups, exposed the existence of two Iranian nuclear sites that were hidden from the IAEA.
By 2003, diplomats launched an intensive effort to halt Iran’s nuclear program. Iran agreed, insisting only on keeping its centrifuges for nuclear energy. However, it did not follow through on its transparent reporting commitment to the IAEA and continued covert activities, leading to a June 2004 rebuke and a September 2005 finding of non-compliance by the IAEA, paving the way for a future referral to the UN Security Council (UNSC). In 2006, the UNSC adopted Resolution 1696 , the first legally binding call for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Over the next few years, the UNSC adopted a series of resolutions imposing crippling economic sanctions on Iran for its failures to suspend its enrichment-related activities.
Between 2011 and 2015, the compounding effects of international sanctions led Iran’s economy to contract by 20 percent and unemployment to rise to 20 percent. In 2013, Hassan Rouhani, a noted pragmatist, won Iran’s presidential election, campaigning on a promise to lift sanctions and restore the economy. Over the next two years, the United States convened several rounds of bilateral talks and led the other P5+1 coalition members—China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom—in negotiations with Iran’s new leadership. These efforts culminated in the adoption of the JCPOA in 2015. Once key parties signed the agreement, the UNSC approved UN Resolution 2231 , paving the way for sanctions relief.
The JCPOA required Iran to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent for fifteen years, cut the number of operating centrifuges by two-thirds for ten years, and provide inspectors access to enrichment facilities within twenty-four days if the IAEA suspects violations. Moreover, if the IAEA confirmed violations, the JCPOA allowed for the immediate reinstatement of sanctions. After the JCPOA entered into force on January 16, 2016, Iran received sanctions relief totaling nearly $100 billion. However, Iran continued to develop ballistic missiles , which, according to the United States, violates UN Resolution 2231.
Iran’s Regional Proxies
Though the JCPOA limited Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its regional ambitions continued to grow. Iran persisted in arming and training Shiite militants through its Quds Force —the international arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—which has exacerbated sectarian divisions in the Middle East. Iran has provided years of military aid and training to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which enabled its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The Quds Force has also provided advanced armed drones to Hezbollah in Lebanon, trained and funded more than one hundred thousand Shiite fighters in Syria, supplied ballistic missiles and drones to Yemen’s Houthis, and helped Shiite militias in Iraq build missile capabilities .
The U.S. government considers Iran to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism , spending more than one billion dollars on terrorist financing annually. There are between 140,000 and 185,000 IRGC-Quds Force partner forces across Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen.
Trump’s First-Term Clash With Iran
Because the JCPOA only addressed Iran’s nuclear program—and not its revisionism or ballistic missile programs—the first Trump administration withdrew the United States from the agreement, pledging to seek a more comprehensive deal. In 2018, the Trump administration began reimposing sanctions on Iran and demanded that European countries withdraw from the JCPOA as part of a new containment strategy. U.S. sanctions sparked the worst economic crisis Iran has faced in forty years, cutting Iranian oil exports by more than half and emboldening Iranian hardliners .
While the Trump administration pursued a strategy of maximum pressure to bring Iran to the negotiating table , Iran began to contravene the JCPOA’s restrictions on its nuclear program, raising tensions. In April 2019, the United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organization. When the Trump administration received intelligence of potential Iranian attacks on U.S. troops, it deployed bombers, carriers, and additional forces to the Middle East. Over the next month, six oil tankers in or near the Strait of Hormuz were attacked, which U.S. government officials blamed on Iran.
‘No ceasefire’: Khamenei military adviser warns war with Israel could restart at any time
A senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said another war with Israel or the United States could begin at any time. “I think another war may happen, and after that, there may be no more wars,” he added, according to a translation by Iran International. The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran began on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization. Iran retaliated by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel, killing 31 people and wounding over 3,000 in Israel, officials and hospitals said.
“We are not in a ceasefire, we are in a stage of war. No protocol, regulation or agreement has been written between us and the US or Israel,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told Iranian media.
“I think another war may happen, and after that, there may be no more wars,” he added, according to a translation by Iran International.
“The Americans and the Zionists say they create peace through power; therefore, Iran must also become strong, because in the system of nature, the weak are trampled,” Safavi said.
“We must strengthen our diplomatic, media, missile, drone and cyber offensive strategy. We, the military, do scenario-planning, we see the worst case, and we prepare a plan for it.”
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms
In late July, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, threatened to attack Israel and the US in a “more decisive manner” if either of them targeted the Islamic Republic again.
“If there are concerns about the possible diversion of our nuclear program into non-peaceful purposes, the ‘military option’ proved incapable — but a negotiated solution may work,” Araghchi said.
After declaring an Israeli victory in July, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to renew attacks on Iran if the Islamic Republic continued to enrich uranium, saying that “if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild [the nuclear program], we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt.”
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The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran began on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack.
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel.
The attacks killed 31 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.
In all, there were 36 missile impacts and one drone strike in populated areas, causing damage to 2,305 homes in 240 buildings, along with two universities and a hospital, and leaving over 13,000 Israelis displaced.
Iran says it will use more advanced missiles if Israel attacks again
Iran said Wednesday it was prepared for any new Israeli attack. Defence Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh said the missiles used in the 12-day war were manufactured… a few years ago. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24. Iran’s army is to begin a two-day military exercise on Thursday, featuring a wide range of short and medium-range cruise missiles, Iranian media reported.. Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern about Iran’s missile programme, calling it a threat to regional security.
Iran said Wednesday it was prepared for any new Israeli attack, announcing it has developed missiles with greater capabilities than those used during their recent 12-day war.
“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.
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“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.
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Read moreFrom graffiti to murder: How Iran lures Israeli citizens into spy missions
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.
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Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern about Iran’s missile programme, calling it a threat to regional security.
Read moreIran to continue nuclear enrichment despite US strikes, ahead of European talks
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.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)