On Tuesday, the Revolutionary Guard said the tests included several missiles with ranges between 300 and 2,000 kilometers (185-1,250 miles), including the Shahab-1 and -2, the Qiam, with a range of 800 kilometers, and the Qadr.
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United Nations diplomats have said it remains unclear when and if action will be taken at the Security Council over the latest tests.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on Wednesday with Iran’s Foreign Minister about the test-firing of two ballistic missiles, a State Department spokesman said.
The United States has said Iran’s missile tests do not violate the terms of an historic nuclear deal between Tehran and six major powers, which resolution 2231, adopted in July 2015, endorsed.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari defended the missile tests in comments to the official IRNA news agency on Thursday, saying the missiles were “conventional defensive instruments and they were merely for legitimate defense”.
On Sunday, the official news agency of Iran, the Fars news agency showed photographs of the site where the Qadr H missiles were fired. IRGC said native experts produced the missiles and that the tests were conducted with the main goal of showcasing the nation’s power, according to reports from Iran’s English-language Press TV channel. Iran says it does not have nuclear weapons and affirmed it will continue its missile program, claiming its right to do so in spite of the sanctions imposed by the global community. Yesterday it test-fired two more long range missiles with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” written in Hebrew on them – perhaps a welcome for Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Israel.
Apparently these missiles were designed specifically to reach Israel, a sworn enemy of Iran.
The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) maintains an arsenal of dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles – the largest in the Middle East, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Votel said that in his assessment, Iran has grown “more aggressive in the days since the [nuclear] agreement”.
Iran also has fired rockets near US warships and flown an unarmed drone over an American aircraft carrier in recent months.
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Tuesday’s tests had triggered a threat of sanctions from the USA, which also said that it would raise the issue in the U.N. Security Council to get an “appropriate response”.
