The U.S. has confirmed Iran tested a medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile.
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…
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