Iran ready to launch satellite, raising arms alarm: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran is poised to launch a satellite into space, a step that could herald a new dimension in Tehran's strategic capabilities, Aviation Week and Space Technology has said. on its website.

A recently assembled, 30-ton ballistic missile-turned space launcher could also be used for testing longer-range missile strike technologies, according to the report which the weekly magazine said would appear in its January 29 issue.

The US Defense Department did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the report.

The Iranian space launcher "will liftoff soon" with an Iranian satellite, said Alaoddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, according to the weekly.

Boroujerdi made his announcement during a speech to religious students and clerics in Qom, where Iran has conducted some of its ballistic missile tests, said the magazine without indicating when he spoke.

Iran's new launch capabilities come at a time of heightened Western concern over Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs, and follows only by weeks a reported missile test by China that destroyed a satellite in space.

Iran's new launcher also highlights close technological ties between Iran and North Korean missile programs, the magazine said, citing US intelligence agencies.

Iran's space launcher raises concerns in the West that it could eventually lead to an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of nearly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), putting central Europe, Russia, China and India within its range, Aviation said.

US intelligence agencies, said the weekly, believe the Iranian launcher is a derivation of Iran's Shahab 3 missile, which has a range of 1,300-1,600 kilometers (800-1,000 miles).

Analysts with GlobalSecurity.org think tank, said Aviation Week, believe the new modified missile could be a stepping stone to an Iranian clone of the North Korean Taepodong 2C/3 ballistic missile that failed in a launch attempt last July in North Korea.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency has said Iran could have the capability of developing a 4,800-kilometers (3,000-mile) range ICBM by 2015, the weekly said.

"But ultimately, their space program aims to orbit reconnaissance satellites like Israel's 'Ofek,' using an Iranian satellite launcher from Iranian territory," Uzi Rubin, former head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, said in a report for The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, according to the weekly.

The planned satellite launch, besides demonstrating Iran's technical prowess, "would be a potent political and emotional weapon in the Middle East," the Aviation Week article said.

"Orbiting its own satellite would send a powerful message throughout the Muslim world about the Shiite regime in Tehran," it said.

Iran's reported space launch capability also coincides with the United States's planned deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic of a missile defense system designed to intercept missile attacks from Iran and North Korea.

The United States already has a network of monitoring satellites and detection radars, as well as missile interceptors in Alaska and California. It wants to deploy a radar and 10 additional interceptors in Europe by 2011.

Iran is under fierce international criticism for its uranium enrichment program, which critics suspect masks a nuclear weapons program. Tehran insists it is aimed at generating electricity.

The United Nations Security Council approved in December a resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, after the Islamic Republic refused a UN demand that it suspend uranium enrichment.