Fars News Agency reported Tuesday that the Iranian regime launched two Qadr H missiles in the country’s Alborz mountain range that landed over 1,000 kilometers away in the Sea of Oman.
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Vice President Joe Biden says the US will take action if Iran violates its nuclear agreement.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday the missile launch did not constitute a breach of the JCPOA. The IRGC has never accepted the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Iran’s missile work… we are always ready to defend the country against any aggressor.
The IRGC maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East. It says they are exclusively for defensive use with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.
Hardliners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who are opposed to any potential thaw in relations between Iran and the West, have said the tests are an act of defiance against United States pressure over its missile programme.
He noted that the US passed sanctions on Iran in response to similar tests conducted in October and November.
Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Iran is making a mockery of President Obama’s vow to confront Iran’s unsafe and illicit acts”.
“A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States”.
“The missiles fired today are the results of sanctions”.
In exchange, most worldwide sanctions on Iran were lifted.
One Security Council diplomat said the tests don’t violate the nuclear deal, but “there are obligations on Iran” that stem from the resolution and “they need to abide by those obligations.” he said. There was no immediate comment from the foreign ministry of Iran.
“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 IRGC, a powerful force that reports directly to the supreme leader, is deeply suspicious of the United States and its allies.
