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USA to keep pushing for United Nations action on Iran despite Russian objection

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from both the Senate and the House of Representatives have called on the Obama administration to take action against Iran in light of its ballistic missile launches, which are in violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2231.

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Power said she would take up the issue in the UN Security Council while European Union foreign ministers met Monday in Brussels to discuss potential punitive options.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said if it was determined that Iran’s ballistic missile tests were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Tehran could face “some consequences”.

Power said Iranian military leaders had claimed that the missiles were created to be a direct threat to Israel and added: “We condemn such threats against another United Nations member-state and one of our closest allies”.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft made clear London shares the view that Iran’s launches of ballistic missiles that appear capable of delivering nuclear warheads were “in blatant disregard of resolution 2231”.

The United States plans to raise the issue in UN Security Council consultations this week and is urging other countries to help thwart Iran’s missile program.

The missile test which was conducted last Wednesday was aimed at demonstrating that how Iran would push ahead its ballistic missile program, scaling back the nuclear program under the deal with United States which was reached previous year.

Riyadh has been especially concerned by U.S. support for Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, fearing its regional rival will be emboldened.

“We did agree that it’s not a violation”, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters, welcoming “a very satisfactory outcome of the discussion”.

“If Iran chooses to violate that, they will invite additional sanctions, as we put them in place just a month ago as a result of the prior tests”. “Legally you can not violate a call”, Churkin said.

Council diplomats say they will first await confirmation from national intelligence agencies on whether the missiles Iran fired were nuclear-capable. The French – who have been the toughest of the Western negotiators – are warning that sanctions would be taken if “necessary”, whatever that means.

A key provision allows the sanctions to be restored or “snap-backed” immediately if Iran is found in breach of the agreement. U.S. Secretary of Stat…

Iran could also use these nukes to threaten the entire world and force it to do its bidding.

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Mr Zarif said he hadn’t yet returned to Iran to check out those reports.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon