Iran Raps France, US for ‘Baseless’ Comments on Its Space Program
The head of the Iranian Space Agency has lashed out at the US and French officials for their “baseless and hackneyed” comments about the recent launch of an Iranian satellite.
In a post on his Twitter account, Morteza Barari advised the US and France to stop making allegations against Iran’s space program.
“I advise the American and French diplomatic organizations to study and review the story of the Mesbah satellite, which has been waiting for years at a European country to be launched into space, and to give public opinion an explanation instead of making bogus and hackneyed comments,” head of the Iranian Space Agency said.
The Iranian nation will not wait for anybody to accelerate its scientific development, Barari added.
His remarks came after the French Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for trying to put a satellite in space and unveiling a new ballistic missile, urging Tehran to abide by international obligations on its missile program.
In separate comments, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also criticized Iran’s recent satellite launch, claiming that it was part of a larger effort to further a nuclear program.
Washington and Paris have levelled accusations against Iran while Mesbah, a satellite built in collaboration with Italy’s Carlo Gavazzi Space SpA in 1998, was seized by Italy because of the Western sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.
In January 2019, Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Tehran should not wait for the other states to launch Mesbah communication satellite, adding the Europeans have backtracked on their promise to launch the satellite.
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