US downplays Iranian military satellite as ‘tumbling webcam’
In twist to press arms ban, US asserts role in Iran deal
WASHINGTON: The head of the US Space Command said the Pentagon believes that Iran’s first successful launch of a military satellite into space does not pose any intelligence threat. The Nour satellite placed into orbit on April 22 is classified by the US military as a small 3U Cubesat, three adjoined units each no more than a liter in volume and less than 1.3 kilograms each, said General Jay Raymond in a tweet late Sunday.
“Iran states it has imaging capabilities-actually, it’s a tumbling webcam in space; unlikely providing intel,” he wrote. “#spaceishard,” Raymond added to the tweet. While Raymond downplayed any threat from the satellite, the United States has warned that Tehran’s ability to place it into space represents a significant advance in its long-range missile capability, posing a greater threat to US forces and allies in the Middle East.
Last week US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of violating a 2015 UN Security Council resolution against Tehran advancing any nuclear-capable ballistic missile activities. On Saturday, Pompeo called for the United Nations to extend its conventional arms embargo on Iran beyond its scheduled end in October. “All peaceloving nations must reject Iran’s development of ballistic-missile-capable technologies and join together to constrain Iran’s dangerous missile programs,” he said.
Iran nuclear deal Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has persistently trashed a nuclear deal with Iran. But as it seeks to extend an arms embargo, it is making the case that it still has a seat at the table. The push has drawn skepticism from Western allies and has led critics to question if the ultimate aim is to kill the deal entirely, potentially in the final stretch of Trump’s re-election campaign.
“You cannot cherrypick a resolution saying you implement only parts of it but you won’t do it for the rest,” a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on United Nations members to renew the ban on all conventional arms exports to Iran which is due to expire in October.
He renewed his push last week after Iran said it had launched a military satellite into orbit for the first time-proving, according to Pompeo, that the clerical regime had been deceitful in saying its space program was for peaceful purposes. The launch should lead more countries to “understand what President Trump has understood since he first came into office, that the Iran deal was a crazy, bad deal,” Pompeo told the Christian Broadcasting Network. The arms embargo was part of a 2015 UN Security Council Resolution-whose primary purpose
Satellite ‘unlikely providing
intel’
was to bless the deal, negotiated by former president Barack Obama, under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear program. Former secretary of state John Kerry has said the five-year embargo was a compromise with Russia and China, which opposed any limits. Wielding veto power,
Russia and China are virtually certain to oppose a new embargo, with Moscow potentially in line for billions of dollars in arms contracts. But there is one way to skirt a veto-if a party to the deal asserts that Iran is in significant violation of it, which would trigger a return of international sanctions. — AFP