Tehran: The United States and three Western allies called Iran’s recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket “a threatening and provocative step” that is “inconsistent” with a UN resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in a letter sent to the UN Security Council and obtained Wednesday by AP.
Iran last week launched the country’s most advanced satellite-carrying rocket into space, marking the most significant step forward for the country’s young space programme.
In the letter to the Security Council, the US, France, Germany and the United Kingdom complained that the Simorgh space launch vehicle, if configured as a ballistic missile, would have the range and “payload capacity to carry a nuclear warhead.”
Iran maintains the 2015 nuclear deal that put caps on its uranium enrichment programme — a possible pathway to nuclear weapons — and the Security Council resolution endorsing that deal do not ban the country from ballistic missile activity. Russia, one of the five world powers that brokered the nuclear deal, has agreed with Tehran.
In late July, the US Senate approved sanctions on Friday against Iran for launching the satellite into space.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani announced that Tehran has officially complained to the UN Security Council over the latest US sanctions and says it violates a nuclear deal reached with it.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said Iran should continue to stand powerful in the face of its enemies.
“International engagement should not lead to ignoring hostility of the enemies,” Khamenei said at the ceremony, broadcast live on state TV.
Earlier Thursday, the state TV website quoted deputy foreign minister and senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi as saying that Iran will come up with a ‘smart’ reaction to the last US sanctions.
Araghchi reiterated Iran’s stance that the US legislation signed by Trump amounts to a “hostile” breach of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran has prepared measures that Iran would take against the US action, he added without elaborating, except to say some of the measures will “improve” Iran’s armed forces.
The US legislation imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile programme and anyone who does business with them. It would also apply terrorism sanctions to Iran’s prestigious Revolutionary Guard and enforce an arms embargo.
