IRGC lifts the 2,000 km range limit on its missiles

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Saturday 7 November 2026 that it has dropped the limit the Islamic Republic had for years placed on the range of its ballistic missiles. Hossein Mohebbi, the IRGC spokesman, told a press conference in Tehran, in answer to a question about the 2,000 km cap on missile range, that the limit has been lifted for the Guards.

Mohebbi did not say whether the IRGC now has a missile with a range of more than 2,000 km, saying only that these capabilities would be shown in practice. It is not known to date that the Islamic Republic has built a missile beyond that range. US officials have said before that the technology of the Islamic Republic's space programme could be used to build intercontinental missiles.

From a 2,000 km cap to a threat without borders

Mohammad Ali Jafari, then commander of the IRGC, said for the first time in 2017 that missile range had been limited to 2,000 km on Ali Khamenei's orders. With that range, the IRGC's missiles can reach the whole Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, much of Egypt and parts of Greece and the Balkans; Israel and US bases in the region are also within this radius. Announcing the end of this cap means that Europe too could come within range of the IRGC's missile programme.

The spokesman's remarks came a few days after Mojtaba Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's leader, warned that the response to any US or Israeli threat would have no geographical limits. The announcement comes as Trump has said he will soon decide whether to resume the war and Qatar is mediating between Tehran and Washington. At the same time the United States has offered a $20 million reward for information on the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

By lifting the cap on missile range, the IRGC is placing Europe within its threat radius too.

The missile programme at the heart of the talks

Alongside the nuclear file, the Islamic Republic's missile programme is one of the main points of dispute in the indirect talks with the United States, and European countries have repeatedly called for it to be limited. In the recent war the IRGC fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel and at US bases in the region, and some of its missile bases were struck.