By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, (Reuters) – Iran has unveiled a missile of its own design with a range up to 1,450 km on Wednesday. The announcement came a day after Washington and Tehran resumed indirect talks in an effort to save a 2015 nuclear accord.

Iran has one the largest missile programs in the Middle East. It claims its ballistic missiles can reach its arch-foe Israel as well as U.S. bases within the region.

State TV displayed the surface-to-surface new “Kheibar Shekan”, (Kheibarbuster) missile. This refers to the ancient Jewish oasis Kheibar, located in the Arabian Peninsula’s Hijaz. It was conquered by Muslim fighters in 7th Century.

The Revolutionary Guards of Iran (IRGC), have produced this long-range missile. According to Iranian state media, it has high precision and is driven by solid fuel. It is also capable of piercing missile shields.”

Iran regards the missile program as an important weapon against America, Israel and other enemies. It rejected Western requests to stop its ballistic missile production.

Iranian media reports that Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff for the armed forces in Iran, said “Iran will keep advancing its missile program.” He spoke at a ceremony held at an IRGC site where the missile was shown.

NUCLEAR DEAL

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is a regional competitor of Shi’ite Iran. It has repeatedly called for major powers to respond to Gulf Arab concerns over Tehran’s missiles.

Israel is an entity that the Islamic Republic doesn’t recognize. It has threatened military action against Iran for years if talks fail to stop Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear ambitions have been peaceful.

Trump, the then-U.S. president withdrew the United States from the Nuclear Deal, which was intended to stop Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. Trump also reinstated sanctions in an attempt to pressure Tehran into negotiations on a wider agreement. This would have addressed Iran’s ballistic missile programme as well as support for Middle East proxies.

Iran’s response was a year later, gradually breaking the nuclear limit, building stockpiles and refining it to higher fissile purity, as well as installing advanced centrifuges in order to increase output.

There have been eight rounds of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran to revive the agreement that was struck after Joe Biden succeeded Trump as White House Counsel. However, differences still exist between Iran’s and the world powers despite the fact that there were only 8 rounds between April and April.

Washington and Tehran have blamed one another for the slow progress.

Iran’s highest security officer Ali Shamkhani said Wednesday that U.S. voices showed there was no coordination in Iran to take political decisions for the advancement of the Vienna negotiations.