Iran presents Shahed drone with 4000 kilometers range

Amid rising regional tensions, Iran’s leadership has shown off a new ballistic missile and a state-of-the-art attack drone, according to media reports. “Today, our defense and deterrence capabilities have grown so much that no demon even thinks of aggression against our dear Iran,” Iran’s new President Massoud Peseschkian said at a military parade in Tehran where the weapons were presented, according to a report by the state news agency Irna on Saturday.

Drone range of 4000 kilometers

According to Irna, the weapons are the Jihad type solid-fuel rocket, which was developed and manufactured by the aerospace department of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. According to Irna, it has a range of a thousand kilometers. The Shahed-136B drone is an upgraded version of the Shahed drone type 136. New features include additional functions and a range of more than 4,000 kilometers, it said.

Western governments accuse Iran of supplying both drones and ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the war with Ukraine. Britain, France, Germany and the USA therefore imposed new sanctions on Tehran in early September.

Iran supports Hezbollah militia

In addition, Iran supports the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon both financially and militarily. It also supports the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which the EU and the USA classify as a terrorist organization, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Since the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the war in the Gaza Strip that it triggered, regional tensions have increased massively. According to Israeli sources, Hamas fighters killed at least 1,205 people in their major attack and abducted 251 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas figures, which cannot be independently verified, more than 41,000 people have been killed so far in the Israeli offensive in response to the attack.

Tensions on the border with Lebanon

Since October 8, northern Israel has also been under constant fire from the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas. Israel is responding to the attacks with counterattacks in Lebanon. After the targeted killing of high-ranking Hezbollah commanders by the Israeli army in Lebanon and explosions of Hezbollah militia communications equipment attributed to Israel, the situation has escalated significantly. On Saturday, Hezbollah reported the death of 16 members of an elite unit in an Israeli air strike the previous day in Beirut.

According to Israeli sources, the Hezbollah commanders killed in Friday’s attack were planning an attack on northern Israel in which they “intended to infiltrate Israeli communities and murder innocent civilians.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, hundreds of Hezbollah militia pagers and walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously. The explosions, which occurred in two waves, killed 37 people and injured almost 3,000. Iran condemned the attacks.