Iran has released video showing a massive underground missile facility filled with a cache of high-powered weaponry.
The footage, shared by Iranian state media on March 25, showed Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mohammad Baqeri and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force commander, showing off what Iranian media said was an "underground missile city."
Some of Iran’s most advanced weapons are seen mounted on vehicles parked in the underground tunnels.
The release of the video comes at a moment of high tensions between Iran and the United States.
Farzan Sabet, a researcher specializing in nuclear nonproliferation and Middle East politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said the Islamic republic has made similar displays of its military strength in the past.
“During times of tension, they'll find various ways to signal their offensive military power, their defensive military power, and their deterrence capabilities. And so, one of the things they do, for example, is test missiles or carry out military exercises,” Sabet told RFE/RL. “One of the other things they do is to tour military facilities, and among those are missile facilities.”
On March 15, the United States launched large-scale air strikes on Yemen targeting the Iran-backed, US-designated terrorist group Ansarullah, better known as the Huthis.
Some defense observers consider the strikes to be intended in part as a warning to Iran.
Meanwhile, Iranian hard-liners have renewed a push for the development of nuclear weapons in the new Iranian year, which started on March 20.
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on March 25 that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. But she noted that US intelligence agencies are monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities closely.
