Iran Lifts Its 2,000-Kilometer Limit on Missile Range

Iran has lifted a self-imposed limit on how far its ballistic missiles can fly. The Revolutionary Guard said Saturday the 2,000-kilometer ceiling no longer applies.

Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, the Guard’s spokesman, announced it at a press conference in Tehran marking the force’s Aerospace Week. Asked whether the limit still stood, he answered: “This restriction has been lifted for us.” Iranian state-linked outlets Tasnim, Mehr and ISNA carried his remarks, and the Associated Press reported them Saturday.

The limit dated to 2017. It was set under the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and described by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as a deliberate ceiling. It kept Iranian missiles focused on regional targets and short of ranges that could reach deeper into Europe.

Mohebbi spoke a day after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered an immediate and effective response to any threat against Iran, without geographical limits. Tasnim reported that Khamenei also ordered a full update of the military’s target lists, covering American and Israeli assets.

Mohebbi added a warning of his own. A new capability has to be shown in practice, he said, not just claimed in advance. “We are constantly improving the range of our missiles, and there is no pause in this work.”

No evidence has emerged that Iran has tested or fielded a missile able to fly past the old limit. Its longest declared systems are led by the Khorramshahr-4, unveiled in 2023.

A conditional warning on nuclear doctrine

At the same press conference, Mohebbi said the Guard would prepare for a change in Iran’s nuclear doctrine if the leadership ordered one. That is a conditional statement, not a decision to change doctrine or build a weapon. He also said the Guard’s aerospace division has built underground missile and drone production facilities, according to Xinhua.

A BBC investigation published Friday, drawing on satellite imagery, found excavation or construction at two Iranian missile sites and signs of repair at at least 12 other military installations.

The context: strikes, then a warning

The announcement came a day after President Donald Trump said U.S. forces had carried out fresh, limited strikes on an Iranian air-defense system on Qeshm Island. “They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five,” Trump told reporters Friday evening in West Palm Beach, Florida. Iranian state media reported two explosions in the Suza area of the island, in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran claims its forces shot down an American MQ-9 drone. The United States has not confirmed that.

Qatar has denied reports that U.S.-Iran talks have failed. The two sides have been talking even as the fighting continues, and the Guard’s announcement adds a new question to those talks: how far Tehran now intends its missiles to reach.