Iran Tests More Missiles Amid Criticism

Iran recently conducted more missile tests, firing two rockets that successfully hit targets over 850 miles away.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran conducted a second successive day of missile tests on Wednesday from the eastern part of the Alborz mountain range that hugs the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, Tehran’s official news agency IRNA reported Saturday.

Before the signing of the accord with the United States and international powers, Iran was barred under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 from any work on ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. That resolution was revoked with the nuclear deal and replaced by Security Council Resolution 2231, which “calls upon” Iran to abstain from such activity.

Tehran says that it has a right to pursue defensive weapons systems and that, since it has given up any semblance of a nuclear program, it cannot in any event be working on a nuclear capability.

“We have huge reserves of various range ballistic missiles that are ready to target enemies and their aims, at any time, from different points of the country,” Brig. Gen.  Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told reporters on the sidelines of the missile-firing drills in Kavir, Qum Province, the semiofficial.

In the United States, the missile tests stoked further criticism of the Obama administration by Republicans who have asserted that the nuclear agreement amounted to a capitulation that the Iranians are now exploiting.

Western media reported that the US will raise these missiles launch issue during UN Security Council consultations next week.