Sabotage

Iran's Guards: 'enemies' trying to sabotage missiles

The Revolutionary Guards on Sunday accused "enemies" of Iran of trying to sabotage the country's missiles so that they would "explode midair" but said the bid was foiled.

"They tried as best as they could to sabotage a small part which we import so that our missiles would not reach their target and explode midair," Fars news agency reported, quoting the Guards' aerospace commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

"But they couldn't do a damn thing because we had seen this coming from the start and had reinforced this sector," he added, accusing Iran's "enemies" of sabotage without naming any specific country.

Iran reined in most of its nuclear programme under a landmark 2015 deal with major powers in return for sanctions relief but has continued to develop its ballistic missile technology.

Earlier this month the New York Times (NYT) reported that a secret US programme to "sabotage Iran's missile's and rockets" had been in existence for years, and was being "accelerated" by the current administration.