As proxy strategy collapses, Iran builds ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe with nuclear warheads

At the end of last month, the Iranian dissident group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) released a report alleging that the Iranian regime is covertly developing nuclear warheads for ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe. 

According to NCRI’s Defense and Strategic Research Committee, which was based on reports from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), ballistic missile programs at Shahrud and Semnan are directly tied to Tehran’s nuclear weaponization entity, the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (abbreviated from the Persian as SPND). 

The facilities at Shahrud and Semnan are described by the Iranian government as conducting rocket and satellite research. However, NCRI alleges that both sites are “in full coordination with the regime’s nuclear weaponization entity” SPND. 

The report says that Iran is currently conducting research on both solid-fuel and liquid-fuel ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. NCRI says that Iran has received help from North Korea in the development of its ballistic missile program. The Iranian Ghaem-100 missile was copied from a North Korean design, and was designed to carry nuclear warheads from the very beginning. 

At the Semnan site, NCRI said that Iran is developing the Simorgh ballistic missile, also based on North Korean missiles, which uses liquid fuel and has a range of over 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles). 

NCRI alleges that the regime has attempted to conceal the expansion of the ballistic missile development and test site in Semnan under the guise of the Imam Khomeini Space Launch Terminal. 

Soona Samsami, a US representative of the NCRI told the British news site The Telegraph that the Iranian SPND group are “masters of lies, deception, and evasion.”  

“For over two decades, they have used negotiations and the West's leniency as a means to advance their nuclear weapons program, threatening global peace and stability,” Samsami said. 

She also warned that Iran’s weakened position following Israeli victories against its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas have not deterred the regime from pursuing nuclear weapons, but increased its resolve. 

“Tehran has never been as weak and vulnerable as it is today,” she stated. “The desperate Iranian regime is thus speeding up the development of nuclear weapons.” 

NCRI alleges that Iran has specifically developed the sites at Shahrud and Semnan as dual use sites, due to the shared nature of the technology needed to launch satellites into Earth orbit and the development of long-range ballistic missiles. 

Pictures released in the NCRI report show that most of the facilities built in recent years have been designed to avoid satellite surveillance, with much of the infrastructure being below ground. 

The report comes just as Iran itself announced the opening of an underground “missile city” designed to house and protect its missiles from attack by hostile forces, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington, D.C. for talks with President Donald Trump on a range of issues, including the Iranian threat. Netanyahu is expected to raise the possibility of a direct strike on Iranian nuclear facilities with Trump. 

While Trump has expressed his preference for a diplomatic solution, he has also voiced support for the idea of a military strike aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. 

Only two days after the report was release, Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile, named Etemad, capable of traveling 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles), placing much of the Middle East, including Israel, within striking distance. 

During the unveiling, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the newly announced Iranian military developments were intended to “ensure that no country dares to attack Iranian territory.”