IRAN: Iran test-fired a long-range missile from a submarine in the Gulf yesterday as part of an orchestrated show of defiance ahead of the UN's Security Council's Thursday deadline to suspend part of its nuclear programme.
Iranian state television carried a video clip showing the missile being launched and hitting a target.
The show of military strength came less than 24 hours after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, formally opened a heavy water plant that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons.
The missile launch underlines Iran's ability to create havoc in the Gulf by closing off the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers, a move that would create serious shortages and send prices soaring.
An Iranian navy commander, Sajjad Kouchaki, quoted on the broadcast, described the missile as Iranian-built, "with a very high speed and destructive power. It is also radar-evading".
The UN has given Iran until Thursday to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which Tehran claims is for purely civilian purposes, but which the US and others in the west view as a step towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability.
Tehran disclosed yesterday that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan is to go to Iran on Saturday for a two-day visit.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said yesterday that any punitive measures by the west would not deflect Iran from its pursuit of nuclear power.
Mohammad Reza Baqheri, the deputy foreign minister, said Iran would never halt uranium enrichment. "It is our red line. We will never do it," he told the official Iranian news agency.