Iran Slams ‘Irresponsible’ French Claims

Date: 12 January 2019 - 21:46

News ID: ۶۱۹۴۹

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran has called on France to avoid repeating "irresponsible and incorrect” claims about Tehran’s ballistic missile work.
France earlier on Friday called on Iran to immediately stop all activities linked to ballistic missiles, after Tehran said it could put two satellites into orbit in the coming weeks.
"France recalls that the Iranian missile program does not conform with UN Security Council Resolution 2231," said Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll.
"It calls on Iran to immediately cease all ballistic missile-related activities designed to carry nuclear weapons, including tests using ballistic missile technology," she added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by TV: "Iran’s home-grown defensive missile program is the Iranian nation’s natural right.”
UN Security Council resolution 2231 enshrined Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
The resolution says Iran is "called upon” to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.
Iran denies its ballistic missile tests violate the resolution, stating that the missiles are not intended to carry nuclear warheads.
The Europeans as well as U.S. officials have already acknowledged that Iran’s missile program does not violate the nuclear deal.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently called on Iran to cease its efforts to develop ballistic missiles and demanded that it drop its plans for a space launch.
American broadcaster CNN claimed that Iran was preparing to launch a remote sensing satellite into space, using a Simorgh space launch vehicle (SLV).
In a statement, he claimed Iran’s space launch "includes launching SLVs, which incorporate technology that is virtually identical to that used in ballistic missiles, including in intercontinental ballistic-missiles (ICBMs)."
That assertion is misleading, said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Lewis told CNN that "the Simorgh is not an ICBM and it cannot, if used as a ballistic missile, strike the United States."
President Hassan Rouhani has stressed that Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international agreements.