“Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the global community must demonstrate that Iran’s threats toward Israel will not be tolerated”, said Clinton, who is ahead in the race to be Democratic nominee in the November 8 presidential elections.
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday that it said were created to be able to hit Israel, defying US criticism of similar tests carried out this week.
The new missile firings were the latest in a series of tests in recent days, aimed at demonstrating that Iran will push ahead with its ballistic program after scaling backing its nuclear program under the deal reached a year ago with the United States and other world powers. “These missile launches constitute a blatant violation of Iran’s UN Security Council obligations, and such violations must have consequences”.
The missile sanctions were imposed a day after nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted.
“Instead of forcefully condemning Iran’s unsafe missile tests, the White House is twisting itself into pretzels to explain how they don’t violate the president’s deeply flawed nuclear deal”, Royce said in a statement.
The semi-official Fars news agency offered pictures it said were of the Qadr H missiles being firedin Iran’s eastern Alborz mountain range to hit a target 870 miles away off in the Sea of Oman.
“Ballistic missile tests, support for [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad, support for Shiite militias in Iraq, all those things across the board so far, no change”.
Hard-line news agencies Fars and Tasnim, both with ties to the IRGC, claimed that the missiles were inscribed with the phrase, in Hebrew: “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth”.
“The 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime”, Hajizadeh said.
A senior Iranian commander has highlighted the country’s capacity for producing missiles, saying the Islamic Republic does not have enough space for keeping its home-made missiles. In the time since the deal, however, hard-liners in Iran’s military have made several shows of strength.
The IRGC maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East.
While the tests did not violate the accord, named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, U.S. officials said that Iran likely breached a United Nations resolution that called on Iran to not “undertake activity related to ballistic missiles” that could deliver nuclear warheads.
“Our enemies have come to understand that increasing security pressures and sanctions will not affect the enhancement of our capabilities so they seek to limit us in the missile arena through imposing economic sanctions”, said Guards chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari.
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The US sanctions imposed in January saw five Iranians and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China added to an American blacklist.
