Iran Media Reports Missile Test, Govt Quickly Denies

Iran’s Tasnim agency reported the regime tested a ballistic missile, but the defense minister denied the claims.

“Two weeks ago, we test-fired a missile with a range of 2000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” declared Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi. “We can guide this ballistic missile.”

Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan insisted the government did not shoot the missile.

“We haven’t recently tested any missile with the range of 2,000km and with an 8-meter-margin of error,” he announced to reporters in Tehran.

If Iran did fire the ballistic missiles then they have violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which tells the regime “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” Previous resolutions say that Iran cannot work on ballistic missiles until 2023.

“We’re still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly transpired,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest when asked about the reports.

The regime shot off medium-range missiles in March, but the United States would not say they violated the resolution. The army launched those missiles “from the east Alborz Mountains, north of Iran, and hit targets on the Makran coast to the southeast along the Pakistan border.” Someone wrote “Israel should be wiped off the Earth” on one of the missiles.

The U.S. and Europe took the same position when Iran fired launches in October and November. Those actions, though, led to sanctions on “11 Iranian entities in January” by the Treasury Department.

“We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s ballistic missile test-launches, which are provocative and destabilizing,” commented one senior Obama administration official on the Iranian reports. “These launches are inconsistent with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, in which the Security Council called upon Iran not undertake any launches of ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.”

Tags: Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, Middle East

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