Atlantic Council:

Iran’s missile program should “rank among the highest priorities of US national security concerns,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador who serves on the Atlantic Council’s board of directors.

In a parade on September 21, Iran’s “military displayed long-range missiles, tanks, and the Russian-supplied S-300 surface-to-air defense system,” according to a Reuters report.

“It’s not out of the question that over time the Iranian missile program could pose a threat to…the United States itself, and to its allies in Europe,” said Khalilzad, who served as the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations in the George W. Bush administration. He is president of Gryphon Partners, a global advisory firm. 


Iran, which developed its missile program as a defensive feature during its war with Iraq in the 1980s, has since increased the range and accuracy of its missiles. “They’re going for greater accuracy, greater lethality,” said Khalilzad. He claimed Iran’s enhanced capabilities further threaten the security of Gulf states, as well as US interests in the region, necessitating a strategic response from the United States. 

Khalilzad joined Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association; Michael Elleman, consulting senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies; and Bilal Y. Saab, senior fellow and director of the Middle East Peace and Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, in a panel discussion on September 23 to launch Saab and Elleman’s issue brief, Precision Fire: A Strategic Assessment of Iran’s Conventional Missile Program. This report examines the concerns raised by Iran’s missile program and how the United States might mitigate the threat. Retired Vice Adm. John W. Miller, former commander of the United States Fifth Fleet, moderated the discussion...

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