Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles earlier on Wednesday that it said were created to be able to hit Israel, in defiance of us criticism of similar tests carried out Tuesday.
Advertisement
US Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States would take action against Iran if the missile tests were confirmed.
That Iran is developing missiles that are suited for nuclear warfare “raises a big question about Iran’s intentions to comply fully with its part of the nuclear deal”, it added.
Iran has conducted a number of other ballistic missile tests this week.
Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said in a statement to Iranian officials in Tehran Tuesday that the country will back out of the nuclear deal if it does not serve Iran’s “national interests”.
The United States imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015.
“The missiles were fired from northern Iran and hit targets in the southeast of the country”, Brigadier General Hajizadeh told state TV.
Biden spoke after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who forcefully opposed the nuclear accord with Iran, his country’s arch-foe.
“But I don’t want to convey the impression that we are only looking at multilateral or United Nations possibilities in terms of measures to deal with it”.
Iran taunted Israel and defied the USA on Wednesday with another test-firing of ballistic missiles, while presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tried to talk tougher than the Obama administration in calling for fresh sanctions against Tehran. “If in fact they break the deal, we will act”, Biden said.
Previous UN resolutions have aimed at stopping Tehran from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, although Tehran has always denied seeking the capability. “The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000km is to be able to hit our enemy, the Zionist regime, from a safe distance”, Brig-Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Isna agency. There was no immediate comment from the foreign ministry of Iran.
Iran’s IRGC said the missiles tested on Wednesday were designed with Israel in mind.
Iran also has fired rockets near US warships and flown an unarmed drone over an American aircraft carrier in recent months.
Advertisement
“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”. This was reported by Iran’s state media.
