TEHRAN, Iran – Iran on Sunday launched a new locally-made submarine capable of firing cruise missiles, state TV said, in the country’s latest show of military might at a time of heightened tensions with the US. The launch ceremony, led by President Hassan Rouhani, took place in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. ADVERTISEMENT“Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully self-reliant on land, air and sea,” Rouhani said. The US withdrew from a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and re-imposed biting unilateral sanctions later last year. “Maybe we would not have this motivation to industrialize our defense sector,” he said, if Iran could just buy the weaponry it needed.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer February 17, 2019 23:03 UTC