Sanctions may have hampered Iran's ballistic missile plans

There is mounting evidence to suggest that sanctions imposed on Iran may have affected Tehran's plans to develop and produce long-range ballistic missiles capable of striking potential targets in western Europe and beyond, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in a report released on 22 July.

If sanctions continue to disrupt Tehran's access to the materials and other hardware needed to produce rocket motors, Iranian attempts to develop such missiles could be impeded, if not halted altogether, the report claims.

A key factor that led to this conclusion was the lack of recent flight tests of Iran's Sejjil-2 solid-propellant Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), said the IISS. The first flight test of the new two-stage missile, which was unsuccessful, was conducted in November 2007 and was followed in November 2008 by a successful launch of a missile that consisted of a live first stage and a dummy second stage. Successful flight tests of Sejjil-2 missiles with live first and second stages were reported in May, September and December 2009.

However, the IISS noted that no test launches had been conducted in 2010. Another test flight took place in February 2011, but none have been reported since then.