Tel Aviv within range of new Iran-supplied Hezbollah rocket - Reprodução

By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent

Iran has equipped the Lebanese-based radical Islamic group Hezbollah with long-range rockets capable of hitting targets up to 200 kilometers away, putting all of Israel's major urban centers - including the southern city of Be'er Sheva - within striking distance. The solid-fuel rockets lack an independent guidance system and their accuracy is questionable but they can still cause considerable damage. According to intelligence estimates, the rockets are meant to strike non-specific areas, such as towns and cities, and carry a warhead estimated to weigh 600 kilograms. This latest development doubles the range of weapons previously in Hezbollah's arsenal.

In this latest transfer of military technology, Iran is seeking to improve its strategic options against Israel rather than better Hezbollah's capabilities. Equipping a Lebanese group considered by the west to be a terrorist organization with such rockets also poses a danger to Lebanon.

The government of Lebanon has been pressured in the past by Hezbollah to disregard the United Nations Security Council resolution 1559, which demands that all armed militias in the country disarm. Hezbollah maintains that it is not a militia and is therefore not obliged to disarm, but the Security Council has not accepted this argument. The rockets delivered to the Hezbollah have appeared under different names. One is Zelzal-2, and its earlier model is the Zelzal-1. Another Iranian name for the rocket is Nazeat. The rocket was first seen in a military parade in Tehran in September 2005, the first such event following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Six Shehab-3 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles were also on display. In response to slogans written on the Shehab-3 rockets, calling for "Death to Israel" and "Death to the U.S.," the military attaches of France, Italy, Greece and Poland, invited to the event, left the VIP platform. Earlier supplies of rockets to the Hezbollah from Iran via Syria, involved Katyusha rockets with a range of 12-22 kilometers. These rockets were used on occasion in attacks against Israel. At later dates the Iranians supplied the Fajr-3 rockets, capable of reaching targets 45 kilometers away. The Hezbollah has never used these weapons. The Syrians also provided the Hezbollah with rockets of their own make, believed to be of 220mm caliber, whose range is several dozen kilometers. Iran later provided Hezbollah with Fajr-5 rockets with a range of 75 kilometers; it is capable of striking the Haifa bay and its strategic industrial installations. The latest Iranian delivery is of rockets whose estimated capability is 200 kilometers (the Zelzal-1 rocket had a range of 150 kilometers). The rocket is 8.3 meters long and is 61mm in diameter. At launch, it weighs about 3.5 tons. Because the rocket is propelled by solid-fuel, it can be easily moved. International defense journals have reported that the Iranian rockets have been stored by the Hezbollah in special bunkers in a number of locations in the Bekaa near Lebanon's border with Syria.