IRAN - Sept. 22 - Missile Test Succeeds.

Iran says it has test-fired a new version of its medium-range missile, as part of events commemorating the start of the Iran-Iraq war 20 years ago. State TV shows footage of the launch. (The updated Shahab-3 missile was shown rising vertically from a mobile launcher.) Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani says the solid-liquid fuel missile had been designed to put satellites into orbit and not for military purposes. However, a US intelligence official says Washington did not view the Shahab-3 as a space-launch vehicle, but as a missile. Admiral Shamkhani says that Iran's defence industry did not produce offensive weapons. He says: "No military use has been forecast for Shahab-3". He does not mention the capability of the missile, but Iran has previously said it had a range of 1,300km. In Washington, Robert Walpole of the National Intelligence Council, which reports to the Central Intelligence Agency, urges a US congressional hearing not to take Iran's announcement at face value. He repeats the council's assessment that Iran continued to pose a security threat to the US. Walpole says that Iran had one of the largest ballistic missile programmes in the ME, and would soon deploy the Shahab-3 "which will allow Iran to reach Israel and most of Saudi Arabia and Turkey". He says that Iran got most of its help in developing the missiles from Russia, North Korea and China. (Since the war with Iraq, when the Iranian armed forces were severely handicapped by a western arms embargo, Tehran has embarked on a strategy of copying and developing military hardware to achieve self-sufficiency. Until the Islamic Revolution, Iran bought its weaponry from the US. It has since succeeded in producing light machine guns, missiles and tanks. In August, Tehran launched its first domestically produced mini-submarine.) Reports say the Al-Sabehat-15 submarine was designed to plant mines and carry out reconnaissance missions.