Iran Tests More Missiles in Message to Zionist Entity

While Iran has riled conservative critics of last summer’s nuclear deal with a succession of missile tests, it is not clear whether the latest activity violates any proscriptions.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran conducted a second successive day of missile tests on Wednesday, firing two rockets that it said hit targets over 850 miles away and were capable of reaching Israel. The tests appeared clearly aimed at sending a message to the Israelis as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was visiting, according to New York Times.

The missiles were launched from the eastern part of the Alborz mountain range that hugs the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.

Before the signing of the accord with the United States and international powers, Iran was barred under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 from any work on ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. That resolution was revoked with the nuclear deal and replaced by Security Council Resolution 2231, which “calls upon” Iran to abstain from such activity.

Tehran says that it has a right to pursue defensive weapons systems and that, since it has given up any semblance of a nuclear program, it cannot in any event be working on a nuclear capability.

“We have huge reserves of various range ballistic missiles that are ready to target enemies and their aims, at any time, from different points of the country,” Brig. Gen.

Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told reporters on the sidelines of the missile-firing drills in Kavir, Qum Province, the semiofficial.

The Obama administration concluded that an earlier round of missile tests in the fall violated the new resolution and prepared a list of sanctions against individuals and businesses involved in the launchings. It then infuriated congressional Republicans by delaying its application until after the nuclear deal went into effect.

The administration has not yet said whether it believes these tests violate the resolution. A State Department official said the matter would be raised at the Security Council, and congressional Republicans promised to introduce new sanctions against Iran.

In the United States, the missile tests stoked further criticism of the Obama administration by Republicans who have asserted that the nuclear agreement amounted to a capitulation to Iran.

IRNA

R.S