State television showed footage of two Qadr missiles being launched from northern Iran which the IRGC said hit targets 1,400 km (870 miles) away.
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The missile launches come on the second and final day of a military drill carried out by the nation, and yesterday’s launches marked the first time Iran had fired missiles since it signed a historic nuclear accord with six world powers – limiting its nuclear abilities.
The US maintains unilateral sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme, while resolution 2231 stipulates that countries can not provide Iran with material for its missiles for eight years – unless the Security Council approves the transfers.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace wing, said the longer-range missiles tested would be capable of hitting Israel, the region’s sole if undeclared nuclear power.
The United States argues that a series of apparent missile tests breach the terms of a UN Security Council resolution and will result in new economic sanctions – either from Washington or the UN.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” written on them, a show of deterrence power by the Islamic Republic as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The two ballistic missiles, Qadr-H and Qadr-F, were launched from the heights of East Alborz Mountains, north of Iran, and hit targets on the Makran coasts, southeast of the country.
Iran has conducted a number of other ballistic missile tests this week.
“Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the worldwide community must demonstrate that Iran’s threats toward Israel will not be tolerated”, she said.
As Reuters reports, “the missile tests underline a rift in Iran between hard-line factions opposed to normalizing relations with the West, and President Hassan Rouhani’s relatively moderate government, which is trying to attract foreign investors to Iran”.
He further stated that Israel was surrounded on all sides by Islamic countries and it will be crushed even before these missiles were used. Tehran has also said that none of its missiles are created to carry nuclear weapons.
The United States imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015.
When U.N. sanctions on Iran were lifted in January, the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee was shut down.
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That ban likely would have covered some of the missile fired this week.
