Bloomberg:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps pledged to enhance the nation’s missile program in defiance of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose hardened stance against the country last week included new sanctions on the security force.
The missile program will be expanded “at greater speed,” the Guards said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency on Thursday. Trump’s “hostile stance” toward Iran reflects the inability of the U.S. and Israel to shift the balance of power in the region, and their “anger” at the Guards’ role, it said.
The statement comes after Trump called Iran a “rogue” state in a speech on Friday that formalized his administration’s more aggressive approach. He refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear accord, even as all other parties to the deal maintain it is abiding by the terms. He also argued that the accord, reached under his predecessor, wasn’t serving national security interests and that Iran had become bolder since it took effect.
