By Tim Hume, CNN
Updated 1614 GMT (2314 HKT) October 11, 2015
(CNN)Iran has successfully test-fired a new precision-guided, long-range missile, state-run media reported on Sunday.
The Emad (Pillar) surface-to-surface missile, designed and built by Iranian experts, is the country’s first long-range missile that can be precision-guided until it reaches its target, said Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan, Iran’s defense minister.
“To follow our defense programs, we don’t ask permission from anyone,” he said, according to state-run news agency IRNA.
The new rocket is “capable of scrutinizing the targets and destroying them completely,” IRNA reported.
The Emad would be Tehran’s first precision-guided missile with the range to reach its enemy, Israel.
Israel is bitterly opposed to Iran’s nuclear program, and observers have speculated that it could be prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in an effort to derail their progress.
Dehqan said following the launch that the Emad would greatly increase Iran’s strategic deterrence capability, state media reported.
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/11/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html