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Iran Challenges International Community by Revealing Third Missile Factory | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A ballistic missile is launched and tested in an undisclosed location, Iran, March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Mahmood Hosseini


London- Iran’s Revolutionary Guards revealed on Thursday the country’s third underground factory for the production of ballistic missiles, challenging the international community once again.

Iran’s head of the Republican Guard’s airspace division Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on Thursday from the city of Dezful in the southwest of the country that his forces are developing a ground-to-ground ballistic missile to be named after the city.

“Iran’s third underground factory has been built by the Guards in recent years … We will continue to further develop our missile capabilities forcefully,” he told Fars news agency.

Hajizadeh added that the Revolutionary Guards would “continue to increase their missile power,” without being affected by the US pressures.

His comments came only a few hours before the US Senate was due to meet to discuss new sanctions against Iran over its missiles program.

Meanwhile, Iranian sources considered the announcement of a new factory for the production of ballistic missiles a message to the administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after criticized the Guards for “showing pictures of underground ballistic missile cites and writing on them anti-Israel slogans while the JCPOA nuclear deal had entered into effect in January 2016.”

Separately, acting chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System Ali Movahedi Kermani asked on Thursday the Guardian Council of the Constitution, which supervises the Iranian elections, to recount the votes of the last presidential polls, asserting that several violations had touched millions of votes and could affect the results of last Friday’s race.

Rouhani won last week’s election with more than 57 percent of the votes, which equal 23.5 million, against Ebrahim Raisi, who received 38 percent.

During a press conference, Kermani said the votes supporting Rouhani could decline from 23 million to 21 million facing an increase in the number of votes received by his contender Raisi, from 16 million to 19 million.