“It was a punitive measure,” Bellaly says as he uses a laser pointer to point to the deployed missiles towering over him in the exhibit.
Two weeks after the Middle East was on the brink of all-out war, with Iran firing hundreds of projectiles at Israel in response to a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Tehran wants to show the world it is capable of fighting more -wide conflict if faced with one.
On April 19, Israel responded with an alleged attack inside Iran’s borders.
Both the Iranian and Israeli actions resulted in minimal damage and appeared from both sides to be aimed at restoring deterrence.
The situation has eased, but the threat of war continues to loom over the region as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues.
CNN has been granted rare access to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exhibit that showcases Tehran’s air and space capabilities, including the types of weapons used against Israel last month.
American media have never been allowed inside until now.
At the permanent display of the Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Forces in western Tehran, dozens of long- and medium-range ballistic missiles are lined up alongside cruise missiles and drones.
The exhibition aims to show the development and progress of Iran’s drone and missile program.
“Today, our drones and missiles have become an important factor in power and the exercise of power in the world,” said Belali, himself a former missile commander during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988. in front of CNN.
A “dark time” in the US when anti-war protests face heavy repression
He says Iran’s massive drone and missile barrage against Israel has been a great success.
Iran’s attack on Israel included drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
The night sky over Israeli cities lit up as the country’s air defenses worked to intercept the shells.
Meanwhile, the air forces of Israel, the US, the UK, France and Jordan were busy in the skies trying to shoot down as many Iranian drones and missiles as possible.
“NATO, the United States and the Arab countries of the region wanted to create barriers to our drones, missiles and cruise missiles, but they failed,” says Belali.
“The world couldn’t stop us.”
Israel’s military said “99 percent” of the projectiles fired by Iran were intercepted by Israel and its partners, with only a “small number” of ballistic missiles reaching the country.
The Iranians claim to have hit two locations in Israel, including the Nevatim airbase in the Negev desert.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said the ballistic missiles that reached Israel fell on the airbase and caused only minor structural damage.
“Accuracy, (down to) less than five meters,” claimed Brigadier General Ali Belali, standing in front of two of the ballistic missiles he said were involved in the strikes on Israel, the Ghadr and the Emad.
The missiles have a range of more than 1,600 km and can carry warheads between 450 and 500 kilograms, he says.
Another missile, called the Heybar, which he said was also used, carried a warhead of about 320 kilograms, the general added.
The largest ballistic missile force in the region
Iran’s ballistic missiles have long been a cause for concern for the US and its Middle East allies, who have called for curbs on the missile program to be part of any deal Washington strikes with Tehran.
Israelis are staging the biggest protest since the start of the war to increase pressure on Netanyahu
The US says Iran has the largest ballistic missile force in the Middle East and considers its missile arsenal one of its “primary tools of coercion and power projection”.
In the past, Iran has insisted that its missile program is purely for defensive purposes.
In recent years and before its attack on Israel, Iran had carried out at least five major cross-border ballistic missile strikes in the region, John Krzyzaniak, a research fellow at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington, DC, told CNN. earlier.
These included two attacks against IS in Syria and three in Iraq, which were said to have targeted US forces, Kurdish fighters and Israeli intelligence.
Also on display in Tehran is what Iran says is a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone made by Lockheed Martin, which it claims was shot down in 2011.
U.S. officials told CNN that year that the drone was part of a CIA intelligence mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.
Three years later, Iran claimed it had succeeded in copying the drone.
Belali says Iran’s missile development is key to the Islamic Republic’s defense strategy.
“In our defense capabilities, we do not rely on anyone. We have made good progress in this area and will make further progress. There are achievements that are not yet talked about.”
Drones are just as important to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The exhibition shows various stages of the development of their drones, ranging from small wooden UAVs used in the Iran-Iraq war to models that the Iranians claim have stealth capabilities.
One of the most famous is the Shahed 136, a low-cost “shoot-and-forget” drone, meaning that the flight path is programmed, the UAV is launched, and then it independently flies to the target area.
While the Iranians admit to using dozens of Shahed 136 drones to target Israel, the US and Ukraine also accuse Tehran of providing hundreds to Russia, with Moscow using them to strike Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.
The Iranians have consistently denied these claims.
Shaheds fly low and slow and usually attack in swarms, says the general, standing in front of an unmarked truck that serves as a secret launch pad.
“Everything is pre-programmed. The flight route is chosen according to (according to) the capabilities of the enemy and the blind spots of the radars and all the elements that can help us reach the target.’
