Tensions rise as Iran launches 3 satellites that are part of a Western-criticized program

JERUSALEM —  Iran said Sunday it had successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket that had failures in the past — the latest actions in a program the West says improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles.

The launch comes as heightened tensions grip the Middle East over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict. While Iran has not intervened militarily in the conflict, it has faced increased pressure within its theocracy for action after a deadly Islamic State suicide bombing this month and as proxy groups like Yemen’s Houthi rebels conduct attacks linked to the war. A drone attack Sunday, claimed by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least 25 in Jordan.

Footage released by Iranian state television showed a nighttime launch for the Simorgh rocket. An Associated Press analysis of the footage showed that it took place at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province.

“The roar of the Simorgh [rocket] resonated in our country’s sky and infinite space,” said state TV reporter Abbas Rasooli in the footage.

State TV named the launched satellites as Mahda, Kayhan-2 and Hatef-1. It described the Mahda as a research satellite, while the Kayhan and the Hatef are nanosatellites focused on global positioning and communications, respectively. Iran’s Information and Communications Technology Minister Isa Zarepour said the Mahda has already sent signals back to Earth.

There had been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh, a satellite-carrying rocket. The failures were part of a series of setbacks in recent years for Iran’s civilian space program, including fatal fires and a launchpad rocket explosion that drew the attention of former U.S. President Trump.

The footage from Sunday showed the rocket bearing the slogan “We Can” in Farsi, likely referring to the previous failures.

The Simorgh is a two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket that Iranians described as being designed to place satellites into a low Earth orbit.

However, the U.S. intelligence community’s 2023 worldwide threat assessment said the development of satellite launch vehicles “shortens the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, because it uses similar technology. That report specifically cites the Simorgh as a possible dual-use rocket.

The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in October.

Under Iran’s relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic slowed its space program for fear of raising tensions with the West. However, in the time since, the 2015 nuclear deal Rouhani shepherded with world powers has collapsed, and tensions with the U.S. have been boiling for years.

Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who came to power in 2021, has pushed the program forward. Meanwhile, Iran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels and has enough material for several atomic bombs, though U.S. intelligence agencies and others assess that Tehran has not begun actively seeking a nuclear weapon.

On Friday, France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemned an Iranian satellite launch that took place Jan. 20, similarly calling it capable of helping the country develop long-range ballistic missiles.

“We have long-standing concerns over Iran’s activity related to ballistic missile technologies that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” the countries said. “These concerns are reinforced by Iran’s continued nuclear escalation beyond all credible civilian justification.”

Tehran maintains the largest arsenal of ballistic missiles in the Mideast, in part due to decades of sanctions following its 1979 Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis that blocked it from advanced fighter jets and other weapons systems.

The U.S. military did not respond to requests for comment Sunday. However, it has quietly acknowledged that the Jan. 20 launch conducted by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was successful.

The State Department said it was aware of the reports of the satellite launch.

“We have long made clear our concern that Iran’s space launch vehicle programs provide a pathway to expand its longer-range missile systems,” the State Department said. “We continue to use a variety of nonproliferation tools, in coordination with our allies and partners, to counter the further advancement of Iran’s ballistic missile program.”

Meanwhile on Sunday, the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry acknowledged that one of its warships shot down a drone launched by the Houthi rebels from Yemen. The HMS Diamond shot down the drone over the Red Sea with its Sea Viper missile system, causing no damage or injuries, it said.

“These intolerable and illegal attacks are completely unacceptable, and it is our duty to protect the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Houthis did not acknowledge the attack. The rebels have said U.S. and British ships are targets in their campaign of attacks that they say is aimed at pressuring Israel to stop the war on Hamas. However, the attacks, which have disrupted international trade, increasingly have tenuous or no links to the war.

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran contributed to this report.