Iran’s vaunted 300-km range sea missile is non-existent

debkafile‘s military sources discount the claim by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari that Iran had test-fired a new naval weapon that could destroy any vessel within a 300-km range.
Jafari boasted to reporters Mon. Aug. 4: “Today the IRGC has the capability to target the enemies’ targets with a wide range of missiles and in a few minutes in case of any attack.”
Responding to a question, Jafari said: “The Strait of Hormuz is an important and strategic strait. … Considering its proximity to our shores, it is completely within the range of our weapons and shutting the strait for an unlimited time is easily possible. There are no limits for us in this regard.”
Wednesday, an American spokesman commented that closure of the Strait, through which 40 percent of the world’s oil passes, would hurt Iran most of all because its own oil exports and refined fuel products imports would be blocked.
Western intelligence sources were skeptical about the IRGC commander’s boast of a sophisticated sea missile as “propaganda fantasy” and unfounded. If Iran has such a weapon, they said, why don’t they exhibit it?
Jafari said the missiles were test fired as scheduled but admitted “unprofessional photography made the tests seem bogus.”
debkafile‘s military sources have confirmed after checking the story out that Moscow is withholding a consignment of advanced S-300 anti-air missile batteries promised Iran and will not send them out in the near future.
Sources in Washington, Moscow and Tel Aviv recently claimed that deliveries were due in early September, which would have seriously impeded a possible Israel Air Force strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.