The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Iran unveils missile; leader chides Trump
Rouhani: Iran will not seek permission to defend itself.
Escalating a war of words with the United States, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared Friday that his country would continue to develop new missiles and “would not seek anyone’s permission to defend our land.”
As he spoke at a military parade in Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps unveiled a ballistic missile with a range of about 1,250 miles, making it capable of reaching much of the Middle East, including Israel.
Rouhani’s nationally televised speech at the parade — which commemorates the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 — and the show of force were a direct display of defiance toward President Donald Trump, who signed a bill in August imposing mandatory penalties on those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.
Although U.N. provisions seek to limit ballistic missile technology, the nuclear agreement negotiated in 2015 by Iran and six world powers, including the United States, does not prohibit Iran from developing such weapons.
The Trump administration has called the omission of ballistic missiles a central flaw of the agreement, which Trump may try to revisit — or scrap altogether, as he has threatened in the past.
At the annual U.N. gathering in New York this week, Trump called the nuclear deal “an embarrassment to the United States,” and Rouhani retorted, in his own address: “It will be a great pity if this agreement were to be destroyed by ‘rogue’ newcomers to the world of politics.”
Upon his return from New York, Rouhani strongly defended Iran’s right to self-defense.
“We will increase our military power as a deterrent,” he said. “We will strengthen our missile capabilities. We will not seek anyone’s permission to defend our land. Not only will we fortify our missiles, but our ground, navy and air forces will always be supported by the people.”
The unveiling of the new missile, called the Khoramshahr, comes two months after Iran launched a missile into space, prompting a new round of sanctions and criticism from the United States.
“Rouhani is playing hardball,” said Sanam Vakil, an Iran scholar at Chatham House, a think tank in London, and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “By promising to step up Iran’s ballistic-missile program, Rouhani seeks to gain support from Iranian hard-liners who have long been critical of the nuclear deal, and who have repeatedly accused him of being soft in international relations. Moreover, hard-liners, such as Iran’s supreme leader, believe compromise with the United States is a futile exercise.”