Iran successfully test-fired a new missile on March 31 capable of avoiding radar detection and striking a number of targets simultaneously, a top military commander announced.

”Today we have successfully tested a new-generation missile capable of hitting different targets at the same time,” the commander of the Revolutionary Guards air force, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, told state television.

The locally developed missile, tested on the first day of week-long military exercises in the Gulf, can also “hide from radars and evade anti-missile missiles,” he said, without disclosing the range.

”The missile’s design and production was done by the scientists in the Iranian defense ministry. It has unique capabilities which are unmatched in the world’s advanced armies, since it was built based on our defense needs,” Salami said. ”It uses multiple warhead technology, which (means) after the detachment of its warhead it becomes divergent, enabling it to hit different targets at the same time accurately, therefore fooling the enemy’s anti-missile systems.”

Iran already has medium-range Shahab-3 missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,280 miles), putting arch-enemy Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East within reach.

Thousands of Iranian troops are beginning war games in the Gulf to prepare the country’s armed forces for warding off “threats” amid increasing tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The maneuvers are to involve the Revolutionary Guards Corps navy and air force, Iran’s regular army and navy, the volunteer Basij militia, and the Iranian police, and are to run from March 31 to April 6 in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.

Iran has two armed forces in which both have their own ground, naval and air force all under the command of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

”More than 17,000 soldiers and sailors will be used, along with 1,500 different kind of vessels, in addition to the different sorts of jet fighter planes, choppers and different missiles,” the commander of the navy of Revolutionary Guards Corps, Rear Admiral Mostafa Safari said earlier this week.

Safari did not say whether Iran will use its ballistic missiles, but added: “We hope... we will gain the necessary and needed readiness to decisively reply to any kind of threats.”

In addition, the spokesman for the maneuvers, Rear Admiral Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghan told state television March 29 that the strait of Hormouz will be one of the focal points of the exercise.

”Some 80 percent of the Persian Gulf’s oil is shipped out of this strait over which Iran has dominant and accurate control,” he said.

”If the enemy wants to make the area insecure, he should rest assured that he will also suffer... since we know the location of their vessels,” he added.

Iran is currently under mounting international pressure over its disputed nuclear energy drive, alleged by Israel and the West to be cover for weapons development. Tehran denies the charges.

Iran refused March 30 to comply with a U.N. Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, defying a warning from major world powers which fear that the Islamic republic secretly wants to develop an atomic bomb.

The Security Council late March 29 unanimously approved a non-binding statement giving Iran 30 days to abandon uranium enrichment activities.

In Israel, Tehran’s arch foe, however, several officials have openly hinted at the possibility of pre-emptive strikes against Iran, seen as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.

Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said nearly two months ago that Islamic republic will give an “extremely quick and destructive response” to any attack against its nuclear facilities.

However, Iran — OPEC’s second biggest oil producer — has been sending mixed messages over whether it would use its oil exports as a weapon in the case of action from the U.N. Security Council.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on March 31 said that Tehran will not use its oil supplies as a lever in the dispute with Western countries over its controversial nuclear program.

”We believe the provision of energy is vital for the world. We will remain true to our obligations to provide for the energy needs of our partners. We are not going to use energy as a political leverage,” Mottaki told reporters.