Iran ‘certain’ Security Council will not act on missile tests

Tehran / AFP

Iran’s defence minister has said he is “certain” the UN Security Council will not take any action over its ballistic missile tests despite calls from Western powers.
Britain, France, Germany and the United States wrote a joint letter on Monday calling for action over tests they said violated last year’s landmark nuclear deal between Iran and major powers, and the Security Council resolution that enshrines it.
They said the two kinds of missiles fired by Iran on March 8 and 9, the Shahab-3 and Qiam-1, were a breach of the resolution because they were “inherently capable of delivering nuclear warheads,” something Iran denies. “I am certain that the Security Council and the United Nations will not respond as our actions are neither a breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the July nuclear deal) nor are they against Resolution 2231,” General Hossein Dehghan said.
He reiterated Iran’s longstanding denial that it ever had any ambition to develop a nuclear weapon and said its missiles were designed to carry only conventional warheads.