Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Anderson of Swansea (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 28 February 2007.

Iran: Missile Threat

Question: My Lords, what is the Government’s assessment on Iran’s progress in the miniaturising technology that is necessary to attach nuclear warheads to these missiles?

Answer: My Lords, we are not aware that a huge amount of progress of that kind has been made. I mentioned the longest-range missiles that Iran has. As best we can tell, there are 34 of those. It does not, for obvious reasons—namely, smallness of number—test them by firing them very frequently, otherwise it would have minuscule numbers. However, it is consequently far from clear that the technologies are well advanced. Let me caution the House that advances in these technologies can be very rapid, particularly if rogue individuals begin to supply those technologies on a well constructed, handed-down basis.

Secondary information