Iran unveils first semi-heavy missile-equipped submarine

Iranian report coincides with its foreign minister’s threat that “chances of war with Israel are great.”

By Associated Press and World Israel News staff

Iran’s state TV is reporting that the country’s President Hassan Rouhani has unveiled the first Iranian-made semi-heavy submarine.

The report on Sunday said that the Fateh, “conqueror” in Persian, is capable of being fitted with cruise missiles. The inauguration of the new vessel is said to have taken place at the southern port of Bandar Abbas.

Since 1992, Iran has developed a homegrown defense industry that produces light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars and torpedoes to tanks and submarines.

The Islamic Republic has also been accused on a number of occasions of lying about military advances based on evidence that calls into question the veracity of Iranian military announcements.

The Fateh has subsurface-to-surface missiles which are reported to have a range of about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.

“The chances of war with Israel are great,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday at the Munich Peace and Security Conference.

The leading challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the April parliamentary election, former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, said at the same conference that “Iran threatens Europe, not just Israel,” and stated that while he is challenging Netanyahu’s leadership, “when Israel’s security is under threat, there is no daylight between us…there is no right or left.”