Iran Press/Iran news: Iran has repeatedly said none of its missiles are designed to be nuclear-capable, and the country is determined to resolutely continue its activities related to missile defense systems program and space launch vehicles, reiterating that both of which are within its inherent rights under international law.
'Latest E3 letter to UNSG on missiles is a desperate falsehood to cover up their miserable incompetence in fulfilling bare minimum of their own #JCPOA obligations,' Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, referring to the nuclear agreement 2015 by its formal acronym.
Zarif urged Britain, France, and Germany not to bow to 'US bullying'.
Zarif also referred to the recent briefing by the US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Advisor to the US Secretary of State Brian Hook, saying Hook admitted that Iran's missile testing is NOT prohibited in Security Council Resolution 2231:
Meanwhile, Iran's permanent UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi offered a point-by-point rebuttal to the Europeans in a letter to Guterres and US Ambassador Kelly Craft, who is this month’s president of the Security Council.
The letter from the three European countries to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres circulated Wednesday.
The Europeans’ letter claimed they used the Missile Technology Control Regime “performance characteristics” that a rocket system would need to be capable of delivering at least a 500-kilogram payload to a range of at least 300 kilometers (185 miles) to be nuclear-capable.
Ravanchi countered that this definition is “not legally binding even for its 35 members, let alone being accepted universally.”
The European letter cited footage released on social media April 22, 2019, of a previously unseen flight test of a new Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile variant equipped with a maneuverable re-entry vehicle, saying: “The Shahab-3 booster used in the test is a Missile Technology Control Regime category-1 system and as such is technically capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.”
The letter added that a 2015 report by the IAEA on allegedly military dimensions of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program concluded: “that extensive evidence indicated detailed Iranian research in 2002-2003 on arming the Shahab-3 with a nuclear warhead.”
Ravanchi called social media an “unreliable” source and said the IAEA “has no technical competence regarding missiles.”
“None of Iran’s missiles are `designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons,’” the ambassador said.
He further said the US and some other industrialized countries, under such absurd pretexts as proliferation concerns, attempt to demonize benign technologies such as space technology and prevent the inherent right of all countries to explore and use outer space.
France, Germany and the UK have reportedly asked Guterres to inform the Security Council in his next report that Iran’s missile program is “inconsistent” with the 2015 resolution endorsing the JCPOA.
Ravanchi said that “since Iran’s activities related to space launch vehicles and ballistic missiles fall outside” the resolution, “the secretary-general is therefore expected to avoid reporting on such irrelevant activities in his reports on the implementation of that resolution.”
Guterres’ report is due Wednesday, and the Security Council has scheduled a Dec. 19 meeting to discuss the implementation of the 2015 resolution.
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