Iran Building Long Range Missiles That Could Hit U.S

President Biden’s retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria on the weekend were targeted to avoid hitting Iranians to avoid escalation. Imagine the restraints on the U.S. when Iran has nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them against U.S. allies or the U.S. homeland.

That’s the specter raised by Iran’s launch on Jan. 20 of a satellite 450 miles into space. There’s significant overlap between the technologies used for space-launch vehicles and longer-range ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 2019 then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described these technologies as “virtually identical and interchangeable.”

In its recent launch Iran for the first time used an all-solid propellant launcher, incorporating a state-of-the-art technology commonly used for long-range missiles, according to Fabian Hinz of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Iran says it won’t develop missiles with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, but that promise can’t be trusted. Even 2,000 kilometers is long enough to strike Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

All of this underscores that Iran’s nuclear ambitions remain its main threat to world order, and Tehran is on the path to getting there.