Despite success of Operation Rising Lion, Iran’s ballistic missile program remains serious threat, says Israeli defense minister

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday assessed that Iran’s nuclear military program had been “mortally wounded” due to last month’s extensive Israeli and American air strikes. Arguing that it would take Tehran years to rebuild its severely damaged nuclear military program, Katz warned that Tehran’s ballistic missile program remains a serious threat to Israel and the international community. 

Addressing the nation at the beginning of last month’s Israeli Operation Rising Lion military offensive against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that the goal of the unprecedented operation was to remove the twin threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and Tehran’s large and rapidly expanding ballistic missile program. 

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir warned last month that Iran’s missile program had become an unbearable threat to Israel’s security. 

“Iran possessed around 2,500 surface-to-surface missiles, with a high production rate, such that within approximately two years, they were expected to possess around 8,000 missiles,” Zamir assessed. 

Israeli military experts have assessed that such vast Iranian missile arsenal would amount to an existential threat to the country. 

Iran fired some 500 missiles against Israel during the war, killing 28 Israeli civilians and causing significant material damage. The Israeli military reportedly also destroyed around 1,000 Iranian missiles on the ground before they could be launched. Israeli military experts have therefore assessed that Iran still retains around 50% of its pre-war missile arsenal. 

In addition, the ayatollah regime also has a larger stockpile of shorter-range missiles that can reach U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf and Arab Gulf states. While rebuilding its nuclear program would be very costly and risky, Iran is more likely to try reconstituting its seriously degraded but still existing missile program. The Israeli defense minister therefore urged the U.S. to pressure the Iranian regime to stop its plans to rebuild its missile program. 

Prior to last month’s war, Iran was believed to possess one of the world’s largest missile programs. In addition to the Iranian missile threat in the Middle East, Tehran is also believed to possess a smaller number of advanced ballistic missiles that can reach parts of Europe. Furthermore, the Iranian regime has reportedly also worked on developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that could one day potentially reach the eastern seaboard of the United States, thereby threatening cities like New York and Washington D.C. 

Speaking at the sidelines of last month’s G7 summit in Canada, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recognized this threat and praised the Israeli military offensive against the Iranian regime’s nuclear and military capabilities. 

“This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” Merz stated. “We are also affected by this regime,” he added.

The German chancellor emphasized that the Iranian ayatollah regime threatened world peace and security. 

“The leadership in Tehran has brought death and destruction upon the world – through attacks, through murder and slaughter, through Hezbollah, through Hamas. I can only say: the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army, the Israeli leadership had the courage to do this,” Merz said. 

While Iran is believed to still possess 500-1,000 missiles that can reach Israel and beyond, its ability to launch missile attacks has been severely undermined by the Israeli military’s elimination of over 50% of Tehran’s limited number of missile launchers.