26th May 2023 – (Tehran) Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, criticised the U.S. and French governments for expressing concern over Iran’s successful test-launch of a new domestically-developed ballistic missile called Kheibar. Kanaani accused the two countries of being major arms exporters to the Middle East and of playing a role in arming Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party during the Iraq-Iran war.
He emphasised that the U.S. and France are opposed to a powerful Iran. The new missile has a range of 2,000 kilometres and a warhead capacity of 1,500 kilograms. The US State Department and French Foreign Ministry had expressed concern over Iran’s development and proliferation of ballistic missiles, which they believe pose a serious threat to regional and international security.