Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps announced Tuesday that it has tested several ballistic missiles across the country, despite recent United States threats of sanction against such tests.
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The resolution tackled Iran’s controversial nuclear program and was among those which expired in January, when the UN’s nuclear watchdog the IAEA confirmed Tehran’s compliance with the terms of a nuclear deal it struck a year ago with six leading world powers.
A United Nations panel said in December that the tests breached previous resolutions aimed at stopping Tehran from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. In January, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the ballistic missile programme.
It says it has ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles) that would be capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East. “The sanctions helped Iran develop its missile programme”, Brig Gen Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Guards, was quoted as saying by Fars.
The Revolutionary Guards report to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Rouhani, and their influence dwarves that of the army and other armed forces.
Also, the chief commander of IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said that Iran’s ongoing missile drills were “firm responses to the nonsense babbled by the enemies about (possible) missile-related sanctions” against Iran.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said he could not confirm Iranian state media’s claim that Iran had conducted multiple tests, but warned Washington might take unilateral or global action in response. State television Tuesday showed missiles fired from various locations, without identifying the sites.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has previously insisted on Iran’s right to carry out missile tests and says the country doesn’t have any missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
The official IRNA news agency said the aim was to show the Islamic Republic’s “deterrent power” and “all-out readiness to counter any threat”.
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There was no immediate reaction from Jerusalem, where Biden was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the nuclear deal.
