ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Monday said it has developed a suicide drone with exclusive capabilities to strike the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.
Kiomars Heydari, the commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, said that the Arash-2 drone is an advanced version of its predecessor and is designed to target the cities of Iran’s bitter rival Israel.
“We have considered this drone specifically for the attack on Haifa and Tel Aviv,” Heydari said, adding that the drone has “unique capabilities and can recover multiple times until it hits the target.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned Iran on Tuesday not to test his country’s “long arm” in a video as he stood next to an F-35 stealth bomber plane, as his country continues efforts to jeopardize the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, which it views as flawed.
Heydari confirmed that the drone has been implemented into the army's arsenal and its capabilities will be unveiled soon.
Israel has vowed to stop at nothing to prevent its arch nemesis from obtaining a nuclear weapon as its efforts to ensure the nuclear deal does not materialize continue.
Lapid on Sunday traveled to Germany to convince European powers not to agree to the accord. His visit follows a joint statement from Germany, France, and Britain, who raised “serious doubts” about Iran’s sincerity in returning to the deal a day earlier.
The statement from the European superpowers came after a report from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said that they were “not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”
Iran’s arch-foe has repeatedly targeted forces it backs beyond its borders, having carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria through its 11-year civil war, often claiming to target bases and shipments of Iran-backed militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, in the country.
Such attacks are conducted as part of the Jewish state’s efforts to prevent the militias from securing further ground along its borders.
Israel has also been blamed for the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members. The IRGC in March vowed revenge against Israel for the killing of two of its guards in an airstrike in Syria earlier.
