Iran Unveils Second Underground "Missile City" In Further Humiliation For Obama

Back in October, Iran put the Obama administration in a tough spot. Tehran test-fired a next generation, surface-to-surface ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The new weapon - dubbed “Emad” - is capable of hitting arch nemesis Israel and although the launch didn’t violate the letter of the nuclear accord, it did apparently violate a UN resolution and that, in turn, prompted a number of US lawmakers to call for a fresh set of sanctions on Tehran.

Of course this isn’t the best time to be slapping the Iranians with more sanctions, which is presumably why The White House delayed a decision on the matter last week.

First, the implementation of the nuclear deal is supposed to bring sanctions relief for Tehran. Any new punitive measures will jeopardize the agreement. If the deal falls apart, it would be a severe blow to Obama’s presidential legacy.

Furthermore, heightened tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in connection with the latter’s decision to execute a prominent Shiite cleric, have plunged the Muslim world into chaos. Were the US to hit Iran with sanctions now, it might very well come across as a kind of backdoor way of supporting the Saudi position in the middle of a worsening diplomatic crisis.

Knowing that Washington is in a bind, the Iranians have pushed ahead with their vaunted ballistic missile program. As we’ve noted on a number of occasions, Iran has one of the largest ballistic missile arsenals in the Middle East. Here’s the breakdown courtesy of the US Institute Of Peace:

• Shahab missiles: Since the late 1980s, Iran has purchased additional short- and medium-range missiles from foreign suppliers and adapted them to its strategic needs. The Shahabs, Persian for “meteors,” were long the core of Iran’s program. They use liquid fuel, which involves a time-consuming launch. They include:

• The Shahab-1 is based on the Scud-B. (The Scud series was originally developed by the Soviet Union). It has a range of about 300 kms or 185 miles

• The Shahab-2 is based on the Scud-C. It has a range of about 500 kms, or 310 miles. In mid-2010, Iran is widely estimated to have between 200 and 300 Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles capable of reaching targets in neighboring countries.

• The Shahab-3 is based on the Nodong, which is a North Korean missile. It has a range of about 900 km or 560 miles. It has a nominal payload of 1,000 kg. A modified version of the Shahab-3, renamed the Ghadr-1, began flight tests in 2004. It theoretically extends Iran’s reach to about 1,600 km or 1,000 miles, which qualifies as a medium-range missile. But it carries a smaller, 750-kg warhead.

• Although the Ghadr-1 was built with key North Korean components, Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani boasted at the time, “Today, by relying on our defense industry capabilities, we have been able to increase our deterrent capacity against the military expansion of our enemies.”

• Sajjil missiles: Sajjil means “baked clay” in Persian. These are a class of medium-range missiles that use solid fuel, which offer many strategic advantages. They are less vulnerable to preemption because the launch requires shorter preparation – minutes rather than hours. Iran is the only country to have developed missiles of this range without first having developed nuclear weapons.

• This family of missiles centers on the Sajjil-2, a domestically produced surface-to-surface missile. It has a medium-range of about 2,000 km or 1,200 miles when carrying a 750-kg warhead. It was test fired in 2008 under the name, Sajjil. The Sajjil-2, which is probably a slightly modified version, began test flights in 2009. This missile would allow Iran to “target any place that threatens Iran,” according to Brig. Gen. Abdollah Araghi, a Revolutionary Guard commander.

• The Sajjil-2, appears to have encountered technical issues and its full development has slowed. No flight tests have been conducted since 2011. IfSajjil-2 flight testing resumes, the missile’s performance and reliability could be proven within a year or two. The missile, which is unlikely to become operational before 2017, is the most likely nuclear delivery vehicle—if Iran decides to develop an atomic bomb. But it would need to build a bomb small enough to fit on the top of this missile, which would be a major challenge.

• The Sajjil program’s success indicates that Iran’s long-term missile acquisition plans are likely to focus on solid-fuel systems. They are more compact and easier to deploy on mobile launchers. They require less time to prepare for launch, making them less vulnerable to preemption by aircraft or other missile defense systems.

• Iran could attempt to use Sajjil technologies to produce a three-stage missile capable of flying 3,700 km or 2,200 miles. But it is unlikely to be developed and actually fielded before 2017.

In fact, Iran's missile cache is so large, they're running out of places to "hide" them. "We lack enough space in our stockpiles to house our missiles," General Hossein Salami said on Friday. "Hundreds of long tunnels are full of missiles ready to fly to protect your integrity, independence and freedom," he added.

Yes, "hundreds of tunnels", like those we highlighted in "Caught On Tape: Inside Iran's Secret Underground Missile Tunnels."

The video shown above was first shown on the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) channel whose cameras were permitted inside the underground base. 

“Those who threaten Iran with their military option on the table would better take a look at Iran’s ‘options under the table,’ namely the missile arsenals. Iran’s known military power is only the tip of the iceberg," the Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters.

On Tuesday, we got a look at yet another Iranian "missile city" when Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani inaugurated a new site. Here's footage from the event:

As Middle East Eye reports, the new "city" will be used to store the Emad: "Iran's military has revealed a secret underground 'missile city' used to store a new generation of ballistic missiles which the US says are 'nuclear capable' and whose test-firing last year broke a UN resolution." Here's more:

The Revolutionary Guards Corps on Tuesday released pictures and video of the underground bunker after a visit by Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said the bunker, which it dubbed a 'missile city', stores the Emad ballistic missile, which has a range of 2,000km and was first successfully tested on October 10. The US says the missiles are advanced enough to be fitted with nuclear warheads.

It is the second such bunker to be publicised in three months, after the Guards in October revealed a facility dug into an unnamed mountain to store and protect Iran's advanced weaponry.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guards's aerospace division, said the facility was only one of many bases scattered across the country.

The publicising of the existence of the bunker comes at a sensitive time in relations between Iran and world powers, who signed an agreement in July to largely curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions. 

And that, in short, should tell you everything you need to know about the degree to which Tehran is prepared to negotiate with Washington vis-a-vis the country's ballistic missile program. 

Iran has always maintained its missile arsenal is for defensive purposes only and thus represents a completely legitimate effort to protect the country from the myriad hostile states in the region. The events that unfolded over the weekend underscore why Tehran is so keen on bolstering its defenses.

But defensive or no, the video shown above represents yet another slap in the face for the Obama administration and will only serve to infuriate already irate lawmakers in the US who, unlike the administration, aren't in the mood to make any new "friends" in the Mid-East.

Comments

[Cognitive Dissonance]

More and more this appears to be a deliberate humiliation self inflected upon 'Obama". There is simply no way 'we' did not know about Iran's capabilities and plans.

In order to control the next presidential puppet 'election', the Empire must build a case about/against the sitting president's ineptitude in order to direct the narrative.

We need the next savior to be accepted, therefore we create the narrative and need for one.

[hedgeless_horseman]

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[NoDebt]

Obama feels in no way humiliated by any of this.

[Dr. Engali]

The only thing that would humiliate that fool is if his golf scores ever got out. 

[order66]

Missile City? Isn't that the Tehran Gay District?

[The Juggernaut]

I guess the bully nation's victim is standing up.  Let Iran hit Israel.  Maybe Israel will stop getting USA to fight its wars.

[Bumpo]

Translation: Fuck you, Israel - Your Samson option don't mean shit

[xythras]

Homos/hobos live to be humiliated.

http://goo.gl/x9SPSw

[jcdenton]

That is quite astute ..

Not many here probably even know about the Samson Option ..

Does it truly exist?

Going further down the rabbit hole, not many will further consider this whole Iran / Saudi fiasco is an intel PSYOP between the two nations ..

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/01/04/january-4-2016-intel-drop/

We do now know that in recent years, even PressTV has been infiltrated by Mossad ..

There are few that can be trusted on both sides of the equation. Just who really and truly are the White Hats? To suggest we are peering into a perpetual hall of mirrors well may be the [under]statement of the century. Dare say the millennia ..

http://eagleonetowanta.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PuppetGate1117141.pdf

http://eagleonetowanta.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Chapter17-Wanta-Bl...

http://eagleonetowanta.com/

https://app.box.com/s/hfgvcqg7gqh7i27at6sv53ywu87lwarp (Read Me First)

[kralizec]

Probably got all those tunnels built after talking to their Nork pals.

How you say "Ho Li Dong" in Persian?

[Jtrillian]

The IAEA said it was OK so no problem.  Wait... they didn't know about this site already?  But I thought Iran had to report such things.  Oh this is only for WEAPONS and does not have to be declared because it doesn't have any nuclear material. Take your word for it? Oh ok.  Sure.

But you'd like to still see the site?  Well ok but it will be six months before you can actually see it.  And we'll have the billions that you seized back befoe then so...

And that folks, is how the Iran nuclear deal works. 

[Bangin7GramRocks]

The Chinese read Missile City and immediately sent 100 agents to buy as much property as they can. Price be damned! Secure, warm weather real estate is highly desirable.

[quintago]

Perhaps we're trading in the old Saudi for a new Iran. About effin time. That think was a clunker, leaked oil like a mofo, and was on its last leg.

[XitSam]

Or his grades.

[Secret Weapon]

Or if he found Reggie cheating on him and doing Michelle.

[xythras]

Nice one Iran.

[WillyGroper]

Do we set the rat traps in the tunnel at the beltway/colorado or both?

[hedgeless_horseman]

...the other white meat, delivered fresh to your shelter or basement!

[Ignatius]

Turtles?  It had to be turtles? But, but... I like turtles.

[Lumberjack]

But Bear Grylls ate bear poo! 

[Xibalba]

This is the REASON Obama cozied up...a humiliation for the American ppl.  Not Obama and Kerry, et al. 

[FireBrander]

"humiliation"?

When Iran crumbles towers in Riyadh, I won't feel "humiliated".

Iran turning Saudi Arabia into a war torn, terrorist filled, Hell hole sounds more like payback from the American ppl than "humiliation" for the American ppl.

[Xibalba]

wishful thinking

[Niall Of The Ni...]

30 days? Try 30 years, if you're lucky. Good luck growing anything in cobalt-salted topsoil during a nuclear winter. You'd be better off enjoying your Starbucks (if that's possible) in a location in the financial capital of your choice. That way you have a fighting chance of dying quickly.

If our masters decide it really is time to cash out, they plan on seeing to it that when the meek inherit the earth there'll be nothing left on it worth inheriting.

We're all riding this tiger. Unless the Lord strike it down, rest assured you won't get off it alive.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you crap you don't need.

[hedgeless_horseman]

You may very well survive a nuclear war.  Did you know that there have been over 500 above-ground detonations of nuclear weapons. 

After you watch the Tin Hat Ranch videos, you may want to rethink your approach. 

A useful rule-of-thumb is the "rule of sevens". This rule states that for every seven-fold increase in time following a fission detonation (starting at or after 1 hour), the radiation intensity decreases by a factor of 10. Thus after 7 hours, the residual fission radioactivity declines 90%, to one-tenth its level of 1 hour. After 7*7 hours (49 hours, approx. 2 days), the level drops again by 90%. After 7*2 days (2 weeks) it drops a further 90%; and so on for 14 weeks. The rule is accurate to 25% for the first two weeks, and is accurate to a factor of two for the first six months. After 6 months, the rate of decline becomes much more rapid. The rule of sevens corresponds to an approximate t^-1.2 scaling relationship.

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq5.html

[AGuy]

The problem isn't with the bombs, but the nuclear plant meltdowns and loss of the spent fuel pools. The Total mass of all the nuclear bombs is measured in tons, the total mass of Nuclear reactors & spend fuel is measuring in hundreds of thousands of tons.

Also the rule does not apply when dirty bombs are used. the US had built a stock pile of dirty bombs. Russia probably does too. Even if the radiation does not end up as a long term region, few people have the skills and resources to provide long term food and shelter. You need land to grow crops that isn't dependent on infrastructure (ie deep underground water, or muni supplied water), and the skills to grow it. One also most be able to grow multiple years worth of crops and preserve them in the likely event of severe crop loss (ie investation, poor weather, drought, disease, etc). You also need methods to prevent your soil from getting contaminated since plants will absorb long duration isotopes. Wind and rain is likely to continue to deposit contaiminates for a year or more. So you would need to keep your fields covered for at least a year. You also need to protect perennials (fruit/nut trees) from getting contaminated, and have some green houses set up so you can grow some food until the contamined dust settles (about a year).

I betchya less than 0.01% of ZH readers have that capablity.

[I reckon so]

"... nuclear plant meltdowns...."

This is the topic that amost no one properly accounts for; of course, for western civ to even reach the point where this happens, we all have other immediate, tremendously difficult problems to solve, anyway.  But the coninuing release (over decades, in "human" terms) of particles will end human existence, as there will be no unaffected water nor soil of any appreciable extent to use (among other things).

[Perimetr]

What are you going to do when the SS-18s begin to fall? (particularly if you live in a large urban area)

three easy things to do:

1) Bend over

2) put your head between your legs

3) kiss your ass goodbye

https://fas.org/pir-pubs/nuclear-war-nuclear-winter-and-human-extinction/

[FireBrander]

"What are you going to do when the SS-18s begin to fall?"

I'll dig my gold out of the ground and use it as a shield from the blast.

Then I'll cash in my bitcoins and move to Canada.

[hedgeless_horseman]

What is your family going to do when a tactical nuke goes off in a shipping container at the port 15 miles up-wind from your home?  They are not going to die from the blast, that is for certain.

[FireBrander]

I'll shove my gold up my a-- and it will protect me from the radiation...I'll walk "suspiciously", but at least I'll be alive.

[SillyWabbits]

Truer words were never spoken.

[Ignatius]

Yes, CD nailed the motives.  In that neighborhood with Israel regularly calling for Iran's destruction -- while projecting that it's Iran braying for war -- failure to make provisions for defence would be pure ineptitude on Iran's part.

[KnuckleDragger-X]

Obuttholes foreign policy really is the definition of insanity, but then again, he never misses a tee time

[Cognitive Dissonance]

I prefer Earl Gray like Captain Picard.

Oh.....wait.....

/humor

[ShrNfr]

Anyone want to buy an ex-president with a extremely used asshole in 2017? The model is known for bending over easily and being Iran's bitch.

[GhostOfDiogenes]

"Anyone want to buy an ex-president with a extremely used asshole in 2017? The model is known for bending over easily and being israel and AIPAC's bitch.

--Fixed to reflect reality

[FireBrander]

Hot Dam!

Russia takes down ISIS and restores (some) order to Syria.

Iran takes out Saudi Arabia and shuts down the "Saudi Elites" TERROR FUNDING.

It's great fucken day today is!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. in a Bind as Saudi Actions Test a Durable Alliance

"The United States has usually looked the other way or issued carefully calibrated warnings in human rights reports as the Saudi royal family cracked down on dissent and free speech and allowed its elite to fund Islamic extremists..." – New York Times - David E. Sanger Jan. 4, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/us/politics/us-struggles-to-explain-al...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ISIS Women and Enforcers in (ISIS's Capital Raqqa) Syria...

“When a (ISIS) Saudi fighter came to ask to marry Dua…He, Abu Soheil Jizrawi, came from a wealthy construction family in Riyadh and promised to transform Dua’s life… he arrived bearing gold for her family. She liked what she saw… He set her up in a spacious apartment with new European kitchen appliances and air-conditioning units in each room… Each morning, Abu Soheil’s servant shopped for them and left bags of meat and produce outside the door.” -  – New York Times – Azadeh Moaveninov Nov 21, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/world/middleeast/isis-wives-and-enforc...

[FireBrander]

Obama's has to know that Saudi Arabia funded/orchstrated the 9/11 attacks along with a LOT of other terror...so Obama buddies up with Iran...and starts a Saudi/Iran war...wouldn't that just be delicious for Obama to screw over the Saudis on his way out the door...FINALLY getting something right for once.

[I reckon so]

Barry will only ever get one thing right, and that is when he STOPS BREATHING.

[skipjack]

Is Barry Sunni or Shi'ia ? It's the only thing you need to know.

[Silver Bug]

The Obama administration has proven itself to be utterly and completely incompetent.

http://silverliberationarmy.blogspot.ca/2016/01/silver-is-now-buck-in-19...

[Wulfkind]

Iran Unveils Second Underground "Missile City" In Further Humiliation For Obama

That would assume Obama can even feel humiliation.  As Obama is a confirmed narcissist, I would say no.

[MrSteve]

The recent and ongoing expansion of superhero characters in the "entertainment media" is the savior-light cultural pre-conditioning prepping for the Big Savior to take over with high public approval. Hitler, Superman, Captain America, all the same mental exercise. People want to be saved from a world they don't understand or control.

[AnonG-Man]

When there are people like Hillary or McCain for years stating out loud that they want to "bomb" and obliterate Iran, I too would want to build "missile cities" and defend myself should the need arise.  You'll never know what Crazy Uncle Sam will do next. They also hate the U.S. for that time the C.I.A. imported terrorism into their country in the 50s and toppled their democratically elected government - once a conspiracy theory, is now conspiracy fact.

[Hitlery_4_Dictator]

 American's are pussies who love being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. America is a joke. Obama has done as all a favor and showed us how pathetic the US is. Thanks Obama. Obama OWNED this Congress....he is the man - congress is pathetic and Obama has shown to be smarter and better in everyway. Congress is his little bitch. 

[GhostOfDiogenes]

I disagree.

Schrub and Obama have only scratched the surface of full retard.

Wait till hillary gets selected.

You ain't seen nuthin yet.

[Hitlery_4_Dictator]

While I agree it will get much worse, I disagree that Hillary will be able to show us how Americans are any more dumb that what Obama has uncovered for us. Amerians are full retard. I now fully understand why the elites call us "useless eaters" They are rigth and I was wrong. We deserve it all. We deserve to be slaves and hearded like sheep. Thanks elites, you are much smarter and better than us. I eat crow.

[skipjack]

Speak for yourself, asshole. You sure don't speak for a lot of others. And CONgress isn't stupid, they're venal. Bought and sold, or extorted/blackmailed into compliance.

[FireBrander]

"Congress is his little bitch."

You stupid fucking Communist bastard.

Obama AND Congress are CORPORATE AMERICA'S BITCHES!

Behind EVERY Congression/Presidental "action" stands a CORPORATION(s) that PAID FOR IT and will PROFIT FROM IT!