'Iran buying, developing missile defence system'

TEHERAN – AFP- Iran, under pressure over its disputed nuclear programme, has been developing a missile defence system and has bought such technology from Russia, the Islamic republic’s top national security official told AFP.

“Is this a problem? Do we need permission?” said Ali Larijani, when asked to confirm reports that his country has bought 29 mobile air defence systems from Moscow in a contract worth more than 700 million dollars (600 million euros).

“We have contracts with other countries to buy or sell arms. This is not the first time we have signed a contract with the Russians. We have done so in the past with Russia and other countries like China,” said Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

“This is not the first time we have bought an anti-missile system. We also make them ourselves.”

Russia’s state news agency ITAR-TASS on Friday quoted an unnamed top Russian defence ministry official as saying the deal involved 29 Tor M-1 mobile systems capable of bringing down both aircraft and missiles.

The United States has said it is unhappy with the deal -- which comes amid unease in the West over Russia’s role in helping Teheran develop nuclear energy.

Larijani said with a smile that Iran’s air defences “do not have many weaknesses”, but went on to dismiss fears that his country was also seeking to equip itself with long-range ballistic missiles.

“We always announce the range of missiles we test. There is nothing secret,” he said.

Iran has been constantly upgrading the Shahab-3 missile, a single-stage device that is believed to be based on a North Korean design and have a range of at least 2,000 kilometres (1,280 miles) -- meaning that arch-enemy Israel and US bases in the region are well within range.

In Farsi, Shahab means “meteor” or “shooting star”.

Iran said it achieved a major breakthrough in May when it successfully tested a new solid fuel motor for the Shahab-3, which would make the missiles more mobile, more accurate and cheaper -- and pave the wave for potentially longer-range, duAl stage devices.

But Larijani asserted that “long-range missiles do not only have a military use, because to launch satellites you need long-range missiles.”

Teheran’s rapid progress on its ballistic missile programme is a major cause for concern in the international community. Israel’s fears were heightened in October when Iran’s harldine President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Jewish state “must be wiped off the map”.

Iran no longer holding Al Qaeda detainees

Iran has extradited all foreign members of the Al Qaeda network arrested inside its borders and is not holding any of the group’s leaders, Ali Larijani, told AFP.

The comments from Ali Larijani come after several years of speculation over which Al Qaeda members Iran’s regime has in its jails.

The United States has also accused Teheran of harbouring members of the group.

“There are no Al Qaeda leaders inside Iran. We do have a long border with Afghanistan, and when the Americans bombed the country, some people crossed this area, but we extradited them or sent them back,” Larijani said in an interview.

“There are rules. Those who were Iranians were tried in Iran. If they were foreign, we prevented them from entering Iran or we expelled them,” Larijani said.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the subsequent toppling of the Taleban regime, Iranian officials announced the arrests of a number of fugitive Al Qaeda members.

In 2003 and most recently in August 2004, Iranian officials said senior members of Osama bin Laden’s network were also being held -- but cited national security as the reason for not divulging names.

Diplomats, intelligence sources and Arab press reports have pointed to the possible presence in Iran of the movement’s spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and its number three, Saif Al Adel, as well as Bin Laden’s son and Al Qaeda heir, Saad.

The three were born in Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia respectively. But reported extradition talks between Iran and each of those three countries were shrouded in secrecy.

Larijani gave no further details, going on to assert only that Iran believed in “peaceful coexistence with other religions, like Christians or Jews, and does not approve of crashing airplanes into buildings.”

Teheran condemned the 2001 attacks and was long opposed to the Taleban militia, Afghanistan’s former rulers, who gave shelter to Al Qaeda before their ouster in a US-led war the same year.