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Iran’s Khamenei: US can’t “do a damn thing” about our missile development

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Iran asserted yesterday that the United States and the international community will not be able to stop Tehran’s missile development, despite it breaching United Nation’s (UN) Security Council resolutions.

Iran, under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has persistently tested ballistic missiles during the past several months. Earlier this month, an Iranian official claimed that a precision-guided ballistic missile had been fired with the capability of reaching Israel. In March, Iranian state television showed images of missiles, apparently the medium-range Qiam-1 missiles, being fired from a variety of underground locations. Later images showed that the missiles were marked with the words “Israel must be wiped out” in Hebrew. It was the third ballistic missile test conducted by Iran since signing a long-term nuclear agreement with the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) in July. Related nuclear sanctions on Iran were lifted in January.

Such tests are a breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1929, passed in 2010, which bans Iran from any ballistic missile development capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology. It is also a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, passed the day after July’s accord was signed, which compels Iran to refrain from any work on ballistic missiles for eight years.  In January, the US imposed new sanctions on eleven Iranian individuals and businesses linked to missile tests from prior violations in October. Following March’s tests, UK, US, France and Germany appealed for UN action over the “destabilising and provocative” tests.

However, speaking to the semi-official Fars news agency yesterday, Khamenei insisted that the US “does not have any influence and they cannot do a damn thing” about “Iran’s missile capabilities”. He accused “The US and other powers” of trying “to bring the country’s decision-making… under their control”.

Earlier this week, Ahmad Karimpour, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said that if Khamenei gave the order, “We will raze the Zionist regime [Israel] in less than eight minutes.”