Khamenei should revoke his nonsense ban on missile range and let the scientists do their job.
Here is he on tape even admitting that he stopped the scientists increasing the range (read also ICBM development)
What kind of tarsoo rahbar will put such a self owning ban? Even admitting that ''there are people who criticize me about this''.
قسمت سوم مستند «غیر رسمی» که روایتی است از دیدارهای پنجشنبهای فعالان حوزه علم و فناوری با مقام معظم رهبری، از صداوسیما پخش شد. رهبر معظم انقلاب در بخشی از این مستند به نکتهای درباره توان موشکی ایران اشاره کردند که برای نخستین بار در «غیر رسمی» از آن رونمایی شد. رهبر معظم انقلاب گفتند: از...
www.entekhab.ir
In reality the exact opposite happens to be the case. If the Leadership was "scared", it would nervously opt to rush towards manufacturing nuclear weapons in order to sanctuarize itself from the threat of US-led "regime change".
Also, it would be disingenuous by definition to suggest that the Supreme Leader is lacking bravery when under his auspices, Iran has been one of a tiny handful of countries on planet Earth to actually dare challenge the zio-American empire, resist the latter's yoke in order to safeguard national sovereignty, and engage in things such as arming the Palestinian Resistance etc, which again no head of a state other than seyyed Khamenei (h.A.) is mustering enough courage to authorize.
Not to mention how the cowardly terrorist attack against him in the 1980's, which nearly took his life and caused him to lose a limb, is ample enough proof that grand ayatollah Khamenei does not fear death in pursuit of his principled goals.
Furthermore, the current limit on the ballistic missile range is subject to potential revision, depending on how the geopolitical situation evolves. The Leader never declared this to be a non-negotiable cap that has to be observed ad vitam aeternam and regardless of circumstances. Which by itself represents yet another brilliant policy tool seyyed Khamenei, in his strategic wisdom, endowed Islamic Iran with.
Geopolitics work in completely different ways from physics or other experimental sciences, and the Islamic Revolution's intrepid Leader has an outstanding understanding thereof. In contexts such as these, rational players do not initiate escalation. In other terms, missile range ought to be increased only under the condition that one's opponents proceed with some sort of a drastic escalation, and/or if deterrence is no longer ensured without an enhanced BM range. Incidentally, the prospect of a range increase getting green lighted acts itself as a deterrent against aggressive moves by the US and allies.
The same applies for the acquisition of nuclear weapons: as long as Iran's existing, non-nuclear means of deterrence are guaranteed to preclude all out military aggression by the enemy, then it is more rational to refrain from developing nukes. Even North Korea did not decide to produce nuclear weapons on a whim - they only did so because:
a) The US regime under Bush jr. decided to put an end to the Clinton administration's attempts at normalization with Pyongyang, placing the DPRK on its so-called "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq, while invading the latter in 2003.
b) More importantly, the DPRK lacks any of the decisive factors of deterrence which Iran enjoys, such as a geographic location enabling her to choke off the main artery of global energy exports at the Strait of Hormoz, in addition to the ability to credibly target the zionist regime, whose security is paramount to the entire political establishment in the US.
In the absence of these two points, North Korea too would have been unlikely to go for nukes.
And let's not fool ourselves into believing that whatever research the IRGC has been conducting in the ballistic missile realm so far, whatever technology it demonstrated including very recent unveilings of key dual use components which could be incorporated into functional ICBM's at a moment's notice, was achieved against the wish and explicit orders of the Supreme Leader in person. Likewise, when the 2000 km limit was in fact exceeded by Iran several years ago with the introduction of the Khorramshahr missile - albeit with plausible deniability due to variable warhead weight, that too happened because Supreme Leader Khamenei decided so and ordered it to happen. No more and no less.
There's no disagreement at all between Leadership and Sepah, both are fulfilling their tasks in a perfectly coordinated manner. There is absolute complicity between the two institutions on Iran's missile program (and on everything else), and they're on the same line.
