Confirmed: Iran Tested Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile
What could possibly go wrong?
The U.S. has confirmed Iran tested a medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile.
.@AmbassadorPower confirms "#Iran launched on Oct10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon"
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 16, 2015
The skinny:
The missile test violates the UN Security Counsel ban on ballistic missile testing; a fact that doesn’t seem to bother the Obama administration in the slightest. Reuters reports:
The United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
“The United States is deeply concerned about Iran’s recent ballistic missile launch,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said in a statement.
“After reviewing the available information, we can confirm that Iran launched on Oct. 10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon,” she said. “This was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929.”
The United States is preparing a report on the incident for the Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee and will raise the matter directly with Security Council members “in the coming days,” Power said.
Council diplomats have told Reuters it was possible to sanction additional Iranian individuals or entities by adding them to an existing U.N. blacklist. However, they noted that Russia and China, which have opposed the sanctions on Iran’s missile program, might block any such moves.
“The Security Council prohibition on Iran’s ballistic missile activities, as well as the arms embargo, remain in place,” Power said. “We will continue to press the Security Council for an appropriate response to Iran’s disregard for its international obligations.”
Surely Iran’s blatant bucking of well established international guidelines should be enough to derail any nuclear agreement, right?
The missile test is not a violation of the nuclear deal, which focuses on Iran’s atomic program, U.S. officials have said. Speaking to reporters in Washington, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the nuclear deal does not fully resolve all areas of dispute with Tehran.
“So we are going to have to continue to put pressure on them through the international community,” he said.
Once the deal takes effect, Iran will still be “called upon” to refrain from undertaking any work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for a period of up to eight years, according to a Security Council resolution adopted in July.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly feel better knowing our only recourse is to “call upon” Iran to stop testing weapons that could annihilate Israel…
And yeah…
Who could have seen this coming?
Aside from everybody not in the West Wing.
— John Schindler (@20committee) October 16, 2015
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Comments
RACIST! SEXIST! HOMOPHOBIC! How DARE you criticize a Custer, er Obama decision!! This could not POSSIBLY be a violation of the treaty that hasn’t been ratified because Obama didn’t submit it as a treaty. This was just a SUGGESTION! And Iran agreed to inspect itself! And it has not reported a violation of itself. And just to suggest Obama made a mistake? OH THE HUMANITY!
Our agreement is as sound as a protective order in a domestic dispute….
Ok, the Iranians tested their nukes.nghe next move is Israel’s to wreck the entire Iranian system without dropping a bomb.
How insufferable that we should be lectured about the dangers of guns and right-wing extremists by the same people who are facilitating a Nuclear arms race and the spread of militant Islam.
Good point. Let’s disarm the American people while feeding the racial divide In the inner cities and importing Muslims from the Middle East. Pick the stupidest response to any issue, the one that places Americans at greater risk, and that will be the official policy of this Administration.
The only question I have is is it intentional or due incompetence ? Me thinks intentional
We screwed the pooch on this one. If we weren’t so blatant about our letting nuclear powers skate we might be able to negotiate.
We’ve set a pattern with North Korea of giving them whatever they want in exchange for nothing.
If you were the Iranian negotiator what would you settle for? Something less? No you’d push us as far as you could and Obama is the proverbial 98lbs. weakling.
Violated a UN SC ban, eh? Well, there’ll be hell to pay. The UN doesn’t mess around. The UN gets things done. They’ll take care of this pronto.
I can think of a lot of horrible things the UN can do. Fortunately, you have to accept their ‘help’ for the horrible results to be inflicted on you.
Does the UN still have those rape teams?
See the problem is, the UN security council resolution bans testing of ballistic missiles CAPABLE OF carrying nuclear warheads, which people in the field know is any and all ballistic missiles. A ballistic missile designed to carry any warhead can have that warhead swapped with a nuclear one down the road. Yet the nuclear deal bans testing of ballistic missiles intended to/ designed to carry nuclear warheads. Iran just says, nope, we don’t intend to put nukes on this, this is just a very, very long-range Tomahawk with a conventional payload to us, and they’re good.
So that’s the source of this situation and the reactions.
Obama will be pleased. To bring about a complete resolution to the “Palestinian crisis” Israel must be forced to the negotiating table from a point of weakness while at the same time reshaping US relations in the area to isolate pro-Israelis segments of the US and promote pro-Palestinian states (looking the other way to Iran’s surrogates). That Israel, from a point of power, would give so much up in the Oslo Accords and still have them rejected does not seem to register with Obama. I keep on hearing of intermediate range missiles being fired at the UAE from Yemen and intercepted by Patriot batteries… older Soviet era missiles…. hum… will Iranian missiles have a better shot?
Once Iran launches its rockets towards Israel, all out war will begin in that part of the world. Israel must presume that Iran has launched nuclear warhead rockets and it has to launch immediate wholesale retaliation on Iran; to wait out the first Iranian strike is to concede destruction of its nation.
Yet, a retaliation launch on Iran’s launch has its own perils; one of which is Russia, another France, and a third is Obama. Russia has raised a severe threat before in much less critical situations. A final peril is that Iran was bluffing and only used HE warheads; “only” in a relative sense; they could do something really dumb, thanks to their radicalism.
The hell of this all is that the Iranian nutcases seem to welcome their “end times.” But Obama is biased in favor of the Mullahs and seems to accept what they want.
So now the sanctions will “snap back” in thirty days, right? … right? … Hello?
Why should this bother Obama? — He’s working for Valerie Jarrett, who is working for the Ayatollah.
This was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929.
SC Resolution 1929 was basically a complaint that Iran had failed to comply with prior SC resolutions concerning its nuclear program.
… Obviously not something Iran is going to start worrying about.
Russia and Iran
In complicity,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
First comes love,
then comes marriage,
then comes Obama
in a baby carriage!
MEMRI says the deal the Iranian parliament approved earlier this week was a unilaterally revised version of the JCPOA the US announced. That deal calls for the immediate removal of all sanctions not merely suspending them. That would preclude any snapback provision that Obama talked about. Also no inspection of military bases. No restriction on missile testing.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8796.htm
and
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8799.htm
Oh and check out the long range bases that Iranian TV was showing. They are literally flaunting this stuff in front of Obama’s nose now. Such complete lack of respect or fear.
http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5107.htm
Fiftycaltx .I should have you shot , but your measly life is not worth the reversal of a Custer ( Obama) order. Unfortunately when the end comes ,we too will rant about ” That fool in the White House. Love the quote on of my fave movies.