Iran’s foreign minister said the country’s work on missiles -not designed for carrying nuclear warheads- has not been restricted by any treaty or UN resolution, making a reference to the IRGC commander’s assertion that Iran’s military force is meant for defense alone.
“Neither JCPOA nor SC Res prohibit Iran from missiles not designed for nuke warheads. Read the Document: It’s plain English not legalese,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a post in his Twitter account.
“Iran hasn’t attacked any country in 250 years. But when Saddam rained missiles on us and gassed our people for 8 yrs, no one helped us… If we had missiles during Saddam’s war on us, they may have discouraged or at least reduced his indiscriminate attacks on our civilians,” he added.
“I challenge those who accuse Iran of provocation to make the same statement as IRGC General: we will not use force except in defense,” Zarif underlined.
His comments came after a recent missile exercise by the IRGC provoked hue and cry in the West.
The IRGC Aerospace Division test-fired a number of advanced ballistic missiles with pin-point accuracy in the drill.
IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari had already described the message of the missile drill as security for Iran and its neighboring countries.
Later on March 14, the UN Security Council convened a session to study the issue, but said in a statement that it needed more technical information to determine whether or not the launches were a breach of a UNSC resolution that was approved after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015, signed the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement that terminated all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program.
Afterwards, the 15-memebr United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed the JCPOA.
Resolution 2231 calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”
Iranian officials have time and again affirmed that none of the country’s missiles have been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, because nuclear weapons have basically no place in Iran’s defense doctrine.
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