Zarif: Arms suppliers to ME cannot ask Iran to abandon defensive weapon
Iran’s foreign minister said countries that are speaking about Iran’s defensive power are those that send billions of dollars of arms to the Middle East, which has led to insecurity in the region.
Mohammad Javad Zarif said that those countries that have sent this large volume of weapons to the region cannot ask a “great and independent” country such as Iran to abandon its defensive weapons, IRNA reported.
He underlined that Iran’s defensive power is not negotiable, adding that the country will continue its policy in this regard.
“Resolution 2231 of the United Nations Security Council has not put limitations on Iran’s missile program,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting in Tehran.
On December 4, the UN Security Council held a meeting behind closed doors, called by the United States, France, and the UK to discuss Iran’s latest alleged missile test, which they claimed may have been in violation of UN Resolution 2231. The session ended with no statement.
The Iranian foreign minister said that the US is making such ‘baseless’ claims because it wants to cover up its own violations of the UNSC resolution after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
Iran’s mission to the UN in a statement released on Tuesday said all ballistic missile-related activities of the Islamic Republic are in full conformity with the relevant provisions of UN Resolution 2231, which endorses the nuclear deal.
The mission described the US as the gross violator of the resolution, emphasizing that “portraying Iran’s ballistic missile program as inconsistent with Resolution 2231, or as a regional threat, is a deceptive and hostile policy of the US.”
It further noted that the US unlawfully quit the nuclear agreement, and is in absolute violation of UN Security Council resolutions.