President Pezeshkian Denies Iran Sending Hypersonic Missiles to Yemen's Houthi Group

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. (Source: IRNA)

JAKARTA - Iran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen's Houthi group, President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised news conference on Monday, a day after the group said the missiles it fired at Israel were hypersonic.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would impose a "heavy price" on the Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with missiles on Sunday for the first time.

"It takes a week for someone to travel to Yemen (from Iran), how did this missile get there? We don't have such missiles to give to Yemen," President Pezeshkian said, as reported by Reuters on September 17.

However, last year Iran showed off what it described as Tehran's first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing images of a missile dubbed "Fattah" at a ceremony.

In his first official news conference since taking office, President Pezeshkian also denied sending ballistic missiles to Russia.

The United States and its allies have recently accused Iran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and imposed new sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. Both Russia and Iran have denied the missile allegations.

President Pezeshkian said Iran had not transferred any weapons to Russia since he took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of sending ballistic missiles to Moscow in September.

"It is possible that such a shipment occurred in the past, but I can assure you, since I took office, there has been no such shipment to Russia." he explained.

Previously, Iran in February was reported to have provided a number of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles to Russia, deepening military cooperation between the two countries hit by Washington sanctions.