Iran boosts arms production lines

[ErnstBlofeld]

UPI:

Iran, stymied by wide-ranging international sanctions, has boosted its production lines of indigenous weapons systems.

Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is to inaugurate production lines for mortars and tactical vehicles built by the Ministry of Defense, Fars News Agency reported Friday.

The two assembly lines for 3/4-ton tactical vehicles and long-range 120mm mortar systems are located in Isfahan.

Since 2007, as a result of concerns about Iran's civilian nuclear energy program, which the United States and Israel insist is a covert nuclear weapons program, the U.N. Security Council has voted sanctions against Iran forbidding it from exporting any weaponry.

Iran's armaments industries are under the Defense Industries Organization, a conglomerate of companies providing Iran's military with indigenous manufacturing capacity and technology. In 2006, the year before U.N. sanctions were imposed, according to Iranian officials the country had exported weapons to 57 countries.

The Defense Industries Organization has successfully implemented production lines for tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, a submarine and fighter aircraft.