•US missiles
The US Department of Defence yesterday announced three agreements with defence contractors to boost the production of missiles and other components to replenish dwindling supplies used in the Middle East war.
The extensive use of interceptor missiles by the United States, Israel and Gulf states to counter Iranian retaliatory attacks has raised concerns about stockpile levels, reports AFP.
Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems agreed to a fourfold increase in the production of a key component known as “seeker heads” for THAAD, a high-altitude anti-missile system that has seen significant use in the Middle East.
The agreement puts the “industrial base on a wartime footing,” the Department of Defense said in a press release.
At the end of January, Lockheed Martin had already announced plans to accelerate its THAAD production from around 100 to about 400 units annually within a few years.
The Pentagon also announced a second agreement with Lockheed Martin to “accelerate” production of Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), tactical ballistic missiles used for the first time against Iran. They succeed the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
Lockheed Martin confirmed the order to quadruple output of the PrSM missiles, saying it builds on a previous $4.94 billion contract awarded by the US Army last year.
In a third deal, Honeywell Aerospace agreed to boost the production of “critical components for America’s munitions stockpile,” including navigation systems, according to a DoD press release.
This comes as Iranian state television, citing an unidentified senior official, reported that Iran had rejected a peace plan proposed by the United States to end the Middle East war.
Amid backchannel diplomacy, Iran is said to have dismissed the US proposal, signalling it will dictate the terms of any ceasefire.
“Iran has responded negatively to an American proposal aimed at ending the ongoing imposed war,” the official said, according to the English-language broadcaster Press TV.
“The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion.”
There has been no official Iranian statement on the reported peace plan.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led pre-war talks with the United States, has yet to comment.
However, Iranian media outlets such as the Mehr and Tasnim agencies have picked up the Press TV report.
Earlier yesterday, two senior Pakistani officials said that — in an effort to mediate — Islamabad had conveyed to Iran a 15-point plan containing US proposals to end the nearly month-long war.
According to the same unidentified Iranian official cited by Press TV, Tehran has put forward its own five conditions for ending hostilities.
These include ending “aggression and assassinations” against the country and its leaders, establishing a robust mechanism guaranteeing that neither Israel nor the United States will resume the war, and compensation for the destruction caused, with a view to reconstruction.
Iran’s conditions also include a cessation of hostilities on all regional fronts and against all “resistance groups” — an implicit reference to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The official is also reported as saying that Tehran wants international recognition and guarantees of Iran’s rights to exercise its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the key maritime route for global trade at the centre of the current war.
