After openly breaching the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran this week also conducted a medium-range ballistic missile test in violation of Security Council resolutions, a report said late Thursday.
The country tested a Shahab-3 missile on Wednesday, the New York Times reported, citing an unnamed US military official.
It was launched from southern Iran and flew some 1,100 kilometers, landing east of Tehran, the report said.
The military source said the missile did not pose a threat to US or Western assets in the region, and that US officials had closely monitored the activity that preceded the launch.
The report said that the missile test “appears to be a political statement by Iran, acting both as a carefully calibrated effort at escalation — and as a message to Europe,” and that it “seemed meant to drive home the point that Iran had no intention on giving up on its own missile fleet.”
Earlier this month, the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had enriched uranium at a level higher than the limit set in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump left last year. European signatories have since been trying to save the pact.
In pulling out of the deal, Trump in part faulted the accord for not addressing Iran’s ballistic missile program. The US fears Iran could use its missile technology and space program to build nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, something Tehran denies it wants to do.
However, a UN Security Council resolution was passed at the time of the deal’s signing prohibiting Iran from testing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The Shahab-3 is widely believed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. READ MORE
