Factbox: Iran's hardline rulers see missile systems as vital deterrent

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : * Last year, Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah was able to transform standard rockets into precision missiles with the cooperation of "experts from the Islamic Republic of Iran".
53% : DUBAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Iran presented what officials described as its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency reported, an announcement likely to heighten Western concerns about Tehran's missile capabilities.
53% : * Iran also has cruise missiles such as Kh-55, an air-launched nuclear-capable weapon (up to 3,000 km), and the advanced anti-ship missile the Khalid Farzh, (about 300 km) capable of carrying a 1,000 kg warhead.
53% : * More recently in 2022, Iran showed its prowess when it attacked Erbil in northern Iraq with a dozen ballistic missiles, an unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.
50% : According to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Iran is armed with the largest number of ballistic missiles in the region.
44% : * Iran says its ballistic missiles, with a range of up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles), are an important deterrent and retaliatory force against the United States, Israel and other potential regional targets.
43% : * Iran has transferred indigenous precision-guided missiles to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's fight against insurgents, according to Israeli and Western intelligence officials.
42% : * Saudi Arabia and the United States have said they believe Iran was behind a drone and missile attack on Saudi Arabia's prized oil facilities in 2019.
39% : Tehran denied the allegation.
34% : In 2020, Iran launched missile attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, including the al-Asad air base, in retaliation for a U.S. drone strike on an Iranian commander whose killing raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict.
16% : The United States accuses Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.