Iran missile projects unaffected by blast: general

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Iran missile projects unaffected by blast: general

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Last months explosion at missile development plant has not affected Iran's missile programme.

04 December,2011 05:27 am

A deadly explosion at a missile development plant last month has not affected Irans ballistic missile programme, its top general said in comments published on Saturday.Armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi said the death of Iranian military experts at the Bid Ganeh base outside Tehran on November 12 had no effect on the self-sufficiency unit of the elite Revolutionary Guards -- responsible for weapons research, the Resalat newspaper reported.The forces and military weapons of the Islamic republic, including ballistic missiles, are more than ready to confront the enemy, he said.The blast killed at least 36 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, including a key figure in Irans ballistic missile programme, Major General Hassan Moqaddam.Firouzabadi reiterated repeated assertions by Iran that the blast was accidental, suggesting that safety measures may have been neglected.Iranian commanders who have experienced dangerous situations (during the 1980-88 war with Saddam Husseins Iraq)... do not take safety measures seriously, he said.Following the blast, Firouzabadi had said that work at the plant had been delayed by only two weeks as a result.But commercial satellite photographs of the facility released by a private Washington institute suggested the explosion had caused serious destruction, with some buildings completely razed.The entire facility was essentially destroyed, said Paul Brannan, a senior analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which posted the images this week.It looks like almost half of the buildings are gone and whats left are the skeletons of the buildings. I would call that a complete destruction of the facility, Brannan, who wrote an analysis of the pictures said.Tehran denies any such ambition and says its nuclear programme is for civil energy and medical purposes only.