US Admits Iran’s Missile Testing Not Prohibited in UN Resolution: Zarif

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook openly admits that missile testing is not prohibited in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 nuclear deal.

In a post on his Twitter account, Zarif hit back at the European parties to the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], which recently accused Tehran of ignoring the UN resolution.

“Brian Hook has given our E3 #JCPOA partners a timely reminder, openly admitting that missile testing is NOT prohibited in Security Council Resolution 2231,” he wrote.

“One of the deficiencies of the Iran nuclear deal is that it ENDED the prohibition on Iran's ballistic missile testing,” Zarif quoted Hook as saying.

His post came after the three European parties to the JCPOA, namely France, Germany and the UK, sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, alleging that “Iran’s developments of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles” go against the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Ambassadors from the three European nations have also called on Guterres to inform the Security Council in his next report that Iran’s ballistic missile activity is “inconsistent” with the call in the resolution endorsing 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 underscored 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.