Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel "would not dare attack Iran," after Israel said it tested a missile following warnings against Iran's controversial nuclear program.
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| Israel successfully tests new rocket system / Hanan Greenberg |
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(Video) Security establishment holds rocket-propulsion test at Palmachim Air Force Base; trial part of future multilayered defense system designed to counter various aerial threats against Jewish state |
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The missile test came after Israeli warnings and accusations about Tehran's atomic ambitions and drew a defiant response from the Iranian president, who said Israel would regret any attack.
Oil briefly rose almost $1 to above $92 a barrel on news of the missile test, which came three days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would consider all options to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Jerusalem says Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010 and that an Iranian nuclear weapon would threaten Israel 's existence.
Israel's defense establishment confirmed the test Thursday and said the IDF had "conducted a rocket propulsion test at Palmachim as part of its missile development program."
Israel Radio said the missile tested was capable of carrying an "unconventional payload" - an apparent reference to the nuclear warheads Israel is assumed to possess, though whose existence it has never publicly confirmed.
Israel Radio quoted unidentified foreign reports as saying Israel was developing the Jericho III long-range surface-to-surface missile.
The radio report said Israel has carried out tests to improve anti-missile systems to intercept both short- and medium-range rockets, including Katyusha rockets used by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and missiles in Iran's arsenal.
Amateur photos posted on Israeli news Web sites showed a white plume in the sky above central Israel.
Analysts were divided on the significance of the test and the Defense Ministry gave only few details. A former Israeli missile expert said: "There are no messages". But a serving defense official said Israel was "not just flexing its muscles".
Israel is believed to have atomic weapons and foreign analysts have said for many years that its Jericho I and Jericho II missiles can carry nuclear warheads.
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