Iran launches second military satellite as negotiations reach critical point

IRAN’S Revolutionary Guard yesterday said it had launched a second military satellite into orbit, as talks in Vienna on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers reached a critical stage.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the Noor-2 as a “reconnaissance satellite” in a statement on its Sepah News website – and IRNA, the state-run news agency, reported that a three-stage Qased launcher had put it into orbit 311 miles above Earth.

The paramilitary organisation placed its first military satellite – the Noor 1 – into orbit in April 2020, revealing for the first time that it ran a space programme parallel to Iran’s civilian one.

That raised fears among US officials that satellite technology developed by Iran could be used for ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear warheads. Tehran denies its space programme is a cover and says it has no intention of developing an atomic bomb.

That it has put a second satellite into space has, however, added to concerns and the US has called on Tehran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, claiming that launching such satellites defies a UN Security Council resolution.

The launch came as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator flew home from Vienna on Monday for consultations, in a sign that Tehran needed to make a political decision on whether to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Donald Trump, the former US president, pulled out of that agreement in 2018, saying that it did not sufficiently curtail Iran’s nuclear activity.

The reimposition of US sanctions has so far not convinced Tehran to sign a more restrictive agreement and diplomats are trying to revive the original agreement.

IRNA described the return of Iran’s negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, as being “within the framework of the usual consultations during the talks”, but Enrique Mora, the EU’S top negotiator, seemed to suggest whether the talks succeed or fail rests with the Islamic Republic.

“There are no longer ‘expert level talks’. Nor ‘formal meetings’,” he wrote on Twitter, responding to comments by an Iranian analyst.

“It is time, in the next few days, for political decisions to end the Vienna talks,” he said. “The rest is noise.”