Iran confirms missile test in defiance of US
A senior Iranian military commander confirmed that Tehran recently carried out a ballistic missile test to the anger of the US, the Fars news agency said on Tuesday.
The Revolutionary Guards official’s comment came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s assertion earlier this month that Iran had test-fired a missile capable of carrying multiple warheads and reaching the Middle East and Europe.
“We will continue our missile tests and this recent action was an important test,” Guards’ airspace division head Amirali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars news agency.
“The reaction of the Americans shows that this test was very important for them and that’s why they were shouting,” he added, without specifying what type of missile had been tested.
The UN Security Council met last week over the test that the US, Britain and France said flouted UN restrictions on Tehran’s military program.
Hajizadeh said Iran holds up to 50 missile tests a year. “The issue of missiles has never been subject to negotiations and nothing has been approved or ratified about its prohibition for the Islamic Republic of Iran in (UN) resolution 2231,” Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Tuesday, according to the Tasnim news agency.
“Our defence doctrine is basically founded upon deterrence.”
Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrined the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran is “called upon” to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.
Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Tuesday he discussed sanctions against Iran with Iraqi energy officials as Washington pressures Baghdad to stop importing Iranian gas that is crucial for its power grid.
“Sanctions were mentioned, they’re a reality, they’re there,” Perry told reporters in Baghdad after meeting Iraq’s oil and electricity ministers, without providing further details of the discussion.
Washington gave Iraq a 45-day waiver over imports of Iranian gas when it reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector on Nov. 5. Iraqi officials have said they need around two years to wean themselves off Iranian gas imports and find an alternative source.
“This (Iraqi) administration recognize ... the imperative to move with some expedition to send a message to the United States ... that this is an administration that is going to move with speed to develop infrastructure especially in the energy sector that best serves the citizens of Iraq,” Perry said.
Iraq reached a deal with US energy giant General Electric and German rival Siemens to install liquefied natural gas-operated mobile power units at some small southern oil fields, Iraq’s state newspaper reported last month.