Israel: Iran will have a missile that can hit the US in 2 to 3 years
Iran’s 200-kilometre (120-mile) range Qader (Ghader) ground-to-sea missile is launched during war games near the Strait of Hormuz on Jan. 2, 2012.
Attempting to raise awareness about the problems a nuclear armed Iran would pose to the West, Israel has announced Tehran will likely have a missile able to strike the East Coast of the U.S. inside of three years.
Jeffrey Heller at Reuters reports that current estimates put Iran's farthest reaching missile at about 1,500 miles, far short of hitting the U.S., but well within range of its "arch-enemy Israel."
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz announced his assessment on Iran's missile program during an interview with CNBC and it echoes a 2010 Department of Defense report that also says Iran may have a U.S. range missile by 2015.
Steinitz said "They (the Iranians) are working now and investing a lot of billions of dollars in order to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles."
He continued, "And we estimate that in two to three years they will have the first intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the east coast of America. So their aim is to put a direct nuclear ballistic threat…to Europe and to the United States of America,"
Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said Iran was working on this long-range missile at the military base that was rocked by an explosion in November 2011.
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