Iran builds 'ambassador of death'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ahmadinejad inaugurates first locally made unmanned long-range bomber.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday welcomed his country's first domestically-built, long-range, unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies.

Speaking to a group of officials Ahmadinejad said, "The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship."

The 4-meter long unmanned plane, dubbed as Karrar or striker, was inaugurated by Ahmadinejad on Sunday - the national day for the country's defense industry- in a ceremony aired live on state TV.

The goal of the aircraft is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the jet is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table."

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a US weapons embargo.

Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s. Since 1992, Iran has also produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, torpedoes and a fighter plane.

The new development in Iran's long-rang strike capabilities comes a day after the Islamic regime began moving uranium fuel into the Bushehr reactor in preparation for activating the power plant.

On Saturday, a first truckload of fuel was taken from a storage site to a fuel “pool” inside the reactor building under the watch of monitors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies – equal to 80 tons of uranium fuel – will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core.