Iran successfully tested a missile that could loft a satellite into space, an official Iranian website announced yesterday, quoting Mohsen Bahrami, head of the Iranian aerospace research center.

That is the same technology that would permit Iran to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Iran already has upset leaders of many nations by refusing to halt production of nuclear materials which Iran claims are for peaceful electrical power generation, but which many Western military analysts say are the makings of nuclear weapons.

A United Nations deadline for Iran to cease its program passed last week with Iran stiff-arming concerns of other nations about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad indicated the nuclear development program wouldn’t stop, likening it to a train with no brakes and no reverse gear.

Iran last year also raised Western fears when it launched a missile from a submerged submarine.

Added together, some analysts raise the specter of Iran being able to strike Western nations or Israel with nuclear weapons, a possibility made more plausible by comments of Amadinejad that Israel should be destroyed, “wiped off the map.”

A leading Iranian also has suggested using atomic weapons against Israel, a staunch U.S. ally.

These are just some examples of why the United States wishes to erect a ballistic missile shield in Europe, to shoot down any Iranian missiles tipped with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction that target allied nations.

Located in the Czech Republic and Poland, this limited ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability would be targeted against any missiles launched by Iran or other nations in the Middle East.

But Russia has voiced worries that this limited BMD capability could be used against its fleet of hundreds of ICBMs, a fear that must be seen as irrational and baseless, according to Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering III, the Missile Defense Agency director. (Please see full story in this issue.)

President Bush in 2002 termed Iran, Iraq and North Korea an “axis of evil,” saying they sponsored terrorism and sought weapons of mass destruction.

While Bush led the United States and some other nations in invading Iraq, he thus far has preferred negotiations with North Korea, and has said the United States at this time has no plans to invade Iran.