IRAN and The Missle Test

Iran test fired a series of mid to long range ballistic missiles in order to try and intimidate Israel into not launching strikes on their nuclear facilities. An Iranian general was quoted as saying "We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets." He also went on to add "We will chase the enemies on the ground and in the sky and we are able react strongly to enemy's threats in shortest possible time." The primary test missile was the Shahab 3 with an estimated range of 1,250 miles (2,000km). There were other missiles tested as well with a range of no more than 400km for either. A defense expert in an interview in regard to the Shahab 3 was quoted saying "They do have a capability to hit some of Eastern Europe and southern Russia but not particularly deep into those countries. Obviously, we don't have very solid information on Iran's missiles, they don't release a lot of information but we think that their Shahab-3 has got a range about 1,300 kilometers while it's improved the version of Shahab-3A, it's stretched its length to get some more fuel into the tanks and they've cut the weight of the warhead by more than half; we think that can do up to 1,800 kilometers. Now if you look at the map of Europe, Volgograd is 1,100 kilometers from Iran and certainly Volgograd was in Europe the last time I looked. That sort of narrow range would get you just about to Istanbul; there's certainly no argument that bit of Turkey is in Europe, that's about 1,400 kilometers from just inside the Iranian border. If you move to the longer-range figure (1,800 kilometers), then you get more cities of East Europe starting to come into range. Eighteen hundred [kilometers] will give you Iran to Kyiv, just about Iran to Athens, I suspect, Iran to Bucharest." This recent test comes as the tensions in east only tighten.