TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran on Saturday inaugurated the production line for a new version of an indigenous air defense missile, called Sayyad (Hunter) 3.
The country’s air defense chief, Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili, said during a ceremony that the missile is "a completely indigenous technology.” The missile "joins the country’s Integrated Air Defense System today,” headed.
Iran announced in December it test-fired Sayyad-3. Its range is 120 kilometers (some 75 miles) and is capable of hitting targets at altitudes of up to 27 kilometers (17 miles).
Defense Minister Brigadier General Hussein Dehqan said the missile has been so designed to counter aerial threats within medium and long ranges. "Sayyad 3 Missile has been designed based on the world’s latest technologies.”  
It "can engage different types of threats, such as radar evasive fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, helicopters, as well as various types of modern aircraft of high maneuvering capabilities and speed... within the sphere of its operation,” Dehqan said.
Sayyad 3, he added, has been fitted with combined maneuvering capability, advanced surveillance apparatuses, infrared capability, and state-of-the-art features against electronic warfare tactics.
In 1992 Iran began a military self-sufficiency program under which it produces mortars to missiles and tanks to submarines.
The inauguration of this manufacture line for missiles comes days after the U.S. imposed a new round of sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals over the country’s defense program.
Reuters, quoting what it described as two informed sources, said Iran decided on Friday for the second time since January not to upset its nuclear pact with six world powers despite public statements by Tehran accusing the United States of violating the deal.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday new U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Iran contravened the nuclear accord reached with world powers in 2015 and he pledged Tehran would "resist" them while respecting the deal itself.
The Trump administration slapped new sanctions on Iran on Tuesday over its ballistic missile program and said Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East undercut any "positive contributions" coming from the nuclear accord, which was reached during the Obama administration.
Iran can use the so-called Joint Commission meetings held every three months in Vienna to trigger a formal dispute resolution mechanism set out for cases where one party feels there is a breach of the deal.
Iran's nuclear envoy Abbas Araqchi declined to answer whether he had used the meeting to trigger the mechanism. But he said: "We were not satisfied with America's...broken promises and...announced that we're not convinced that America has properly carried out its duties."
He added: "Iran maintains its right to show any reaction toward these bad promises."
A source with knowledge of the matter said "the Iranians did complain a lot and the Russians supported them, but they won't play along to Washington's game and be turned into killjoys."
This source, and another one with knowledge of Friday's meeting, said Iran did not use the plenary session comprised of envoys from Iran, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the EU to start a dispute resolution.
This mirrored Tehran's actions in January at a previous so-called Joint Commission meeting, which is held in Vienna every three months, when Iranian officials opted not to escalate a standoff over the extension of other U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. measures signal that the administration of President Donald Trump is seeking to increase pressure on Iran while keeping in place the deal designed to curb its nuclear activities in return for a lifting of sanctions, Reuters speculated.
The Trump administration is reviewing policy on Iran, not only looking at Tehran's compliance with the nuclear deal, which it has certified, "but also its behavior in the region”, the news agency added.