The National:
Iran’s recent test firing of a new guided ballistic missile tested Washington’s response to the development of its next phase of missiles ahead of the implementation of the nuclear deal.
The launch last week also sent a message to adversaries locked in a regional cold war with Tehran.
Over the past seven months Iran has unveiled a number of new missiles that it says are equipped with precision guidance systems, and one that can reach as far as Israel — a significant step up from its existing ballistic missiles — and that could potentially be developed to carry nuclear warheads.
US officials condemned the test of the Emad missile, and said that it violated an existing UN Security Council resolution, though stopped short of calling it a violation of the agreement over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The United States is deeply concerned” about the launch of a missile “inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon”, the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said. “This was a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1929.”
That resolution, passed in 2010, bans Iran from testing any ballistic missiles, but US officials have said the test did not violate the resolution that will replace it — resolution 2231 — when the nuclear deal is implemented. 2231 stipulates that Iran will be “called upon” to not develop missile technology designed specifically to launch nuclear weapons for at least eight years.
Ms Power’s statement suggest US officials will interpret any Iranian missiles which can potentially carry a nuclear warhead as a violation of the deal, whereas Iranian officials will probably insist that only those missiles specifically equipped to carry an atomic bomb are banned under the deal to lift sanctions in exchange for limits on Tehran’s nuclear programme. But so far there has been no action in the Security Council to probe the alleged violation.
Iran has invested heavily in its ballistic missile programme, one of the only areas where it can challenge regional rivals in conventional military terms, and thus forms the core of its deterrent capability. It appears set to increase and upgrade its missile programme even before sanctions on it are lifted, which could be a central point of contention with the US over the life of the accord…
