By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - Iran is preparing to test launch later this summer a medium-range multi-stage missile that could have a range of up to 2,650 miles (4,250 km), an independent U.S. specialist said on Thursday.
The missile, code-named Kosar, would carry a version of Russia's RD-216 liquid-fuel rocket booster, the same engine which powered the Soviet Union's SS-5 missile, said Kenneth Timmerman, director of the Middle East Data Project.
"The Iranians as we speak are in the process of stacking and unstacking missile stages for a test launch later on this summer at the Shahroud missile test centre," he told Reuters.
Timmerman, who gave testimony on Iran's missile programme to a House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday, said he expected the Iranians would present the launch as a test for putting a satellite into orbit, just as North Korea did when it fired a Taepodong missile over Japan in August.
Iran has already announced plans to commission a communications satellite to be launched within two years. In February it said it was building a missile to launch satellites but Western defence analysts said the missile, named Shehab-4, was more likely to be a surface-to-surface weapon.
The analysts said the Shehab-4 was largely derived from the obsolete Soviet-era SS-4 ballistic missile, which had a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km).
Timmerman said he had his information on the more powerful Kosar missile from U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had no immediate comment.
"It is the U.S. side which is tracking the activities at the launch site right now. They are analysing what they actually see (from satellite photographs). That's where they see the multiple stages and they see them put one on top of another," he said.
The most powerful missile so far launched by Iran was the Shehab-3 in July 1998, with a range of 800 miles (1,300 km).
Timmerman said there was "concrete evidence" that Russia had transferred the RD-216 booster to Iran as part of what the United States says has been extensive cooperation between the two countries on ballistic missiles.
"A transfer of this nature cannot take place without the highest levels of the Russian government being aware. The Russians simply do not share our concerns about the Iranian missile programme," he added.
The United States has been trying to stop Russia helping Iran with its weapons programmes, apparently with mixed success. It has imposed sanctions on Russian scientific bodies alleged to have provided Iran with missile and nuclear technology.
Russia says it will fulfil all its international obligations but also continue to help Iran with its plans to build nuclear power stations, seen in Washington as a possible channel for leaks of nuclear expertise and material.
Timmerman said he thought Iran's ultimate aim was to develop a missile capable of reaching the United States, as a deterrent against any U.S. attack on Iran. "This missile test is one step along the way," he said.
A more immediate goal is to assert its military strength in the Gulf, "to show their neighbours that they are a power to be reckoned with," he added.
He said that as far as he was aware the U.S. intelligence community has not briefed members of Congress on Iran's latest missile preparations, possibly because the Clinton administration still had hopes that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami would bring about a political transition in Iran.
The chairman of the House Science Committee, James Sensenbrenner, said Timmerman's account of the Kosar programme was a good reason to pass the proposed Iran Nonproliferation Act, which would restrict extraordinary payments by the United States to the Russian Space Agency in connection with the International Space Station project.
The Russian Space Agency controls Energomash, the company which manufactured the RD-216 rocker booster.
To qualify for such payments, Russia would have to take steps to prevent the transfer to Iran of goods and technologies for use in programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
"If the information on the Kosar missile is true, Iran's progress ... represents a sea change in the threat facing the U.S. mainland," Sensenbrenner said in a statement.