According to Ahlul Bayt (A) News Agency – ABNA.ir – The Israeli Cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday that the Ofek-9 satellite (means Horizon -9) was launched from the Palmachim air force base in the south coast of Tel Aviv.
The statement added, “At present, a team of technical experts is working on examining and analyzing the results of the launching process.
However, the Ministry did not give any other details about the spy satellite itself, but the Israeli public radio station said that the “Ofek-9”, like the other series of “Ofek” Satellites, could capture high-resolution images.
Monitoring Iran’s nuclear program
The Israeli radio station reported that the main purpose of launching the new spy satellite is to monitor the Iranian nuclear program. It added that the new satellite was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, and was launched on a carrier rocket-type “Shavit”.
It is noteworthy that by launching the Ofek-9 satellite, Israel now has six satellites to spy in space. In fact, Israel in 2008, asking for Delhi’s help, launched the Israeli artificial spy satellite “Tecsar”, which was successfully launched from “Sriharikota” base south India.
Tecsar Satellite
The Israeli mass media at the time stated that the Tecsar satellite, or Polaris, would support Israel’s ability to keep track of the military activities in Iran.
Yet, the Israeli attempt to launch the Ofek-6 in the year 2004 has failed, because the Israeli artificial satellite fell into the Mediterranean Sea due to technical problems in the launch pad.
It is also noteworthy that Israel, which has the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, even if it did not officially announce this, considers that Iran is the major threat to it, especially after the repeated references by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Jewish state’s demise.
Israeli and Western Doubts
Along with its Western allies, Israel suspects Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program.
Whereas, the Iranians deny such a claim, and insist on saying that their nuclear program is intended for purely peaceful purposes.
However, Israeli officials believe that the presence of three Israeli artificial satellites, currently spying on Iran, enables the Jewish state to keep an eye on wide range of Iranian sensitive areas.
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