Iran announced Monday that it has designed a new model of long-range drone aircraft capable of striking Israeli cities.
According to a report by Iran’s Mehr News which cited a senior Iranian military official, the new Arash-2 suicide drones – upgrades of the older Arash-1 drones – have extended range enabling them to reach targets in Israel.
Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari was quoted in the piece as saying the new drones are “designed to hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa."
“We have specially designed this drone for Haifa and Tel Aviv. This is a unique drone that was developed for this task,” Heidari said, vowing Iran “will unveil this drone’s capabilities in future exercises.”
The announcement comes amid reports that nuclear talks in Vienna have reached an impasse.
On Sunday, an Israeli official told reporters that the US will not push to finalize nuclear talks with Iran until after this November’s midterm elections.
“At this point in time, it appears that the agreement won’t be signed, at least until after the midterm elections for the House and Senate in November,” the official said.
“We have yet again succeeded in influencing the Americans to avoid making additional concessions to Iran.
On Thursday, Israel Hayom reported that US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman – a strong supporter of the nuclear deal – said in closed conversations that talks in Vienna are not close to a breakthrough, reassuring Democratic senators that there will be no new deal before the November midterms.