{"id":179944,"date":"2018-12-03T07:39:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T07:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179944"},"modified":"2018-12-05T04:30:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T04:30:34","slug":"iran-says-it-will-continue-missile-tests-after-u-s-allegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179944","title":{"rendered":"Iran says it will continue missile tests after U.S. allegation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reuters \u2013 Dec 3, 2018<\/h1>\n
\"A<\/a>

A Qadr H ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, during a maneuver, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Iran said on Sunday it would continue missile tests to build up its defences and denied this was in breach of U.N. resolutions following U.S. allegations that Tehran had tested a new missile capable of carrying multiple warheads.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday condemned what he called Iran\u2019s testing of a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of the 2015 international agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, from which Washington has withdrawn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMissile tests … are carried out for defence and the country\u2019s deterrence, and we will continue this,\u201d Brigadier- General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for Iran\u2019s armed forces, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to both develop and test missiles. This is outside the framework of (nuclear) negotiations and part of our national security, for which we will not ask any country\u2019s permission,\u201d Shekarchi said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He did not confirm or deny Iran had tested a new missile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted: \u201cIran just test-fired a … ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel and Europe. This provocative behaviour cannot be tolerated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi also said Iranian missiles were purely defensive and added: \u201cThere is no Security Council resolution prohibiting missile programme and missile tests by Iran.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 enshrined Iran\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in which Tehran curbed its disputed uranium enrichment programme in exchange for an end to international sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resolution says Iran is \u201ccalled upon\u201d to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSURREALISM IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS\u201d<\/h3>\n

Iran has repeatedly said its missile programme is purely defensive and denied that its missiles are capable of being tipped with nuclear warheads, or that it has any intent of developing nuclear weapons through uranium enrichment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May, President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the nuclear deal, approved before he took office, and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. Trump said the deal was flawed as it did not include curbs on Iran\u2019s development of ballistic missiles or its support for armed proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSurrealism is now the US\u2019 modus operandi in its foreign affairs,\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile (the United States) itself violates (U.N. Security Council resolution) 2231 \u2014 and even threatens to punish those who don\u2019t wish to violate it in abiding with illegal US sanctions \u2014 it now falsely accuses Iran of violating the very SAME resolution,\u201d Zarif added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Separately, Zarif accused Washington of arming militant groups that fight against the Tehran-backed Syrian government and the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUS (is) proliferating advanced weapons to extremists incl Al Qaeda & ISIS (Islamic State),\u201d Zarif tweeted, referring to a British newspaper report that said many arms supplied by Britain and the United States had ended up in the hands of militias fighting in the Yemen war.<\/span><\/p>\n

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted that he was deeply concerned by \u201cIran\u2019s test-firing of a medium range ballistic missile. Provocative, threatening and inconsistent with UNSCR 2231\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur support for (the Iran nuclear accord) in no way lessens our concern at Iran\u2019s destabilising missile programme and determination that it should cease,\u201d Hunt added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defiant Tehran insists its missiles are purely for defence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179947,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179944\/revisions\/179947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}