Business Insider
Iran just launched a ballistic missile in apparent violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Iran “tested a liquid-fueled missile … capable of carrying a nuclear warhead” last month, citing two anonymous US officials.
The test would mark Iran’s second illicit ballistic-missile launch since the landmark nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached between Iran and a US-led group of six countries earlier this year.
Iran also tested a long-range, nuclear-capable Emad-class missile in October.
The July nuclear deal is aimed at implementing a number of non-binding controls on Iran’s ability to stockpile fissile materials for a nuclear weapon over the next 15 years, in exchange for the lifting of most US and EU and all UN sanctions on the country.
The deal’s implementation also supersedes all previous UN Security Council resolutions related to Iran’s nuclear program. So though the two missile tests are illegal under the current international framework, Iran will only be “‘called upon'” to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years” once the JCPOA goes into effect, according to Reuters.
The ballistic tests might complicate the deal’s implementation. Iran has violated UNSC resolutions and launched nuclear-capable long-range missiles — at the same time it’s agreed to a series of over decade-long limitations on its nuclear program. This contradictory behavior that might suggest a split within Iran’s notoriously fictionalized regime.
But the test probably won’t come as much of a surprise to US officials, as there have been two major indications that the US didn’t think nuclear diplomacy would be enough to arrest Iran’s ballistic-missile progress…
