Iranian Majles member IRGC General (Ret.) Esmaeil Kowsari said in an October 14, 2024 interview on Channel 3 (Iran) that the founder of Iran’s long-range missile program, Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, had been in the midst of testing an intercontinental long-range ballistic missile (ICBM) when he “was martyred” in 2011. General Kowsaei served in the past as the head of the Defense and National Security Committee in the Iranian Majles.