Iran will launch a satellite into orbit on Sunday, an Iranian minister said, as part of a fledgling program which the United States says is a cover for ballistic missile development.
State television said Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is in charge of the missile program, had also unveiled a new short-range missile.
The announcements come at a time of high tension with the United States, which killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to carry out a missile attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq.
Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi was quoted by state television as saying the Zafar (Victory) satellite would be launched from Iran's Semnan space center.
The first picture it will transmit will be of Soleimani, he added.