OREANDA-NEWS. The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have developed a new ballistic missile, the tests of which were shown on August 20 by the IRIB Broadcasting Corporation. This is a ground-to-ground ballistic missile named Hadj Qasem in honour of General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the US military in January 2020.

In addition, a new cruise missile Abu Mahdi was demonstrated. It is named after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a commander of the Iraqi Shiite coalition Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, who died together with Soleimani.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the news about the testing of new missiles important. “We must contain the enemy on land and at sea with missiles,” the politician said.

Iran has been developing missile programme since the 1990s. Tehran refuses to negotiate on the limitation of its missile industry, arguing that its rivals in the region have weapons of a similar class.