Official says Iran missiles no threat

TEHRAN, July 11 (UPI) -- Iran's missile capability, shown off this week in its first test, poses no threat to the region or Europe, an Iranian official said Friday.

The tests were merely a military exercise but showed Iran is ready to fight off any threat, Mohammad-Esmail Kowsari, the deputy head of Majlis National Security and the Foreign Policy Commission, told the IRNA news service.

"Defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic (of Iran) is based on self-defense," he said. "Since the

U.S. and the Zionist Regime have newly planned an all-out threat against Iran, the Islamic Republic's armed forces showed in an exercise their high defensive power to defend the Islamic land's territory and independence."

Kowsari said Iran has never pursued nuclear energy for non-peaceful purposes because "our religion and Islamic morals ban it and the (the U.N. regulatory agency) has necessary control and supervision over it."