The range of Iranian missiles

When the Iranian government negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which became United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, it sought to draw a line between Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile program. While critics of the JCPOA identify the lack of constraints on ballistic missiles as a flaw, Iranian diplomats have sought to assuage that it exists only for defensive purposes and that Iran would self-limit ballistic missile productions to those with a range under 1,200 miles.

For years, Iran’s clerics have preached sermons undercutting these diplomatic assurances, as illustrated in a recent article from Defa Press. By delivering his remarks at the weekly Friday sermon in Tehran, in which capacity he was speaking on behalf of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Movahedi-Kermani suggested that Iranian missiles are geared predominantly to target both American interests in the region and Israel. That Movahedi-Kermani spoke about American bases but did not differentiate between Israeli military targets and cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa suggests that, to the Iranian regime, all Israeli targets are legitimate.