Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Missile tests by Iran do not comply with the spirit of the comprehensive agreement on the nuclear program, however, making the decision of whether they violate the UN resolution is the responsibility of the Security Council, the Secretary General of the organization Ban Ki-moon mentioned in his report.

On March 8-9, the Iranian Armed Forces conducted test launches of ballistic missiles in the framework of the final stage of Iranian rockets’ testing exercises. Following that, USA, UK, France and Germany addressed a joint letter to the UN Security Council complaining that in its test launches, Iran deployed missiles that could carry nuclear warheads The countries claimed that Iran violated the Resolution 2231 of the UN Security Council of July 2015 and required the UN to take adequate measures on that issue.

In turn, Ban Ki-moon noted that the Iranian authorities have stressed the impossibility of using nuclear warheads in their missiles, Reuters said, citing a report it received.

“To interpret its own resolutions is the case of the Security Council, but my concern is that these launches do not fit the constructive spirit shown during the signing of the agreement,” he said.

Moreover, Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern about the USA’s interception of weapons in the Gulf of Oman in March 2016, “The United States concluded that the weapons were from Iran which probably sent them in Yemen. Iran informed the UN Secretariat that it has never participated in such carriage,” he said adding that the UN still analyzes the information from the USA and Iran on that case.

On January 16, Iran got rid of the majority of sanctions imposed on the country — the IAEA presented a report confirming the readiness of the Iranian authorities to implement the program of significant reduction of the country’s nuclear potential.

However, the U.S. maintains in force the sanctions on other aspects, including “support of terrorism” and the development of ballistic missiles.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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