Sarkozy at NATO summit: Iran is today's missile threat

Iran tests cruise missile defense; country's "forces are sufficient to send all US Army home in coffins," 'says Teheran military commander.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
French President Nicolas Sarkozy 311 AP (photo credit: AP)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy 311 AP
(photo credit: AP)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday that NATO's planned missile defense system is intended to protect against the threat posed by Iran, AFP reported.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit taking place in Lisbon, Sarkozy said, "No name appears in the documents made public by NATO, but let's call a spade a spade: today's missile threat, it's Iran," according to the report.
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Also on Saturday, Iran tested its own missile defense system, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.
Revolutionary Guard commander General Ezatollah Beigi told Fars that Iran has "the needed systems and equipment for identifying, tracing and intercepting Cruise attacks," adding, "And these systems have been tested in the war games."
Beigi said that Iranian experts had successfuly identified the "weak points of cruise missiles."
As part of week-long war drills, Iran also conducted "psychological operations at strengthening, strategic and tactical levels," Fars reported.
Iranian Colonel Hossein Razmara said that the priority of the exercise was "to confront [the enemy's] soft warfare which is aimed at creating doubt, discord and pessimism among the masses of the [Iranian] people," according to the report.
Casting doubt on the prospects of an invasion of Iran, the commander of the country's Basij (volunteer) forces said that no nation would dare invade due to prospects of mass casualties. He said, "Those who occasionally threaten us with military attack to gladden their friends in the world should know that the border residing troops of Iran's Basij forces are sufficient to send all the US Army back to their homes in coffins," Fars reported.