Iran on Wednesday reportedly test-fired two ballistic missiles inscribed with the wording “Israel must be wiped out”.
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Iranian leaders on Tuesday threatened to abandon the global agreement if it conflicts with Tehran’s “national interests” – just hours after the missiles were launched, which violate UN Security Council resolutions.
The head of the IRGC’s aerospace branch, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that United States sanctions would have no effect on his country’s missiles programme.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that if it was determined that Iran’s ballistic missile tests were in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, Tehran could face “some consequences ” “.
Last’s year’s nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers does not specifically prohibit missile development and focuses on greatly limiting Iran’s uranium-enrichment programs.
When U.N. sanctions on Iran were lifted in January, the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee was shut down.
“All their conventional activity outside the (nuclear) deal, which is still beyond the deal, we will and are attempting to act wherever we can find it”, Biden said during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
A ballistic missile is launched and tested in an undisclosed location, Iran, March 9, 2016.
Speaking from Israel, where he is discussing USA military support for Israel with top officials, Vice President Joe Biden said that if Iran broke the terms of the nuclear deal, “we will act”.
Also on Wednesday, the general tapped to soon lead the USA command overseeing the Middle East, Army General Jospeh Votel, expressed concern over the recent missile tests. On Wednesday, the IRGC fired two new ballistic missiles from the northern part of the country that hit the southeastern part, traveling a distance of 870 miles. Hajizadeh said the long-range ability of their missiles is meant “to confront the Zionist regime”. It was the first such test since Iran and world powers reached the landmark deal last summer.
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“Enemies of the Islamic revolution and regional security must fear the roar of the Guards’ missiles”, he added, quoted by the Guards’ official website. But as past launches have shown–and despite the friendlier relations the nuclear deal had hoped to intone–Iran has said it sees no need to defend its actions, or as its defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, has said, to “ask anyone’s permission”.
