Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan on Wednesday confirmed that Iran had conducted a ballistic missile test. He, however, denied that the test was in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal reached by the nation and other major world powers, including the United States.
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"The action was in line with boosting Iran's defence power and is not in contradiction with the JCPOA (the nuclear deal) or Resolution 2231," Dehghan was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. The Iranian minister made the statement in reference to the United Nations resolution which bans Iran from developing missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, on Tuesday had said that Iran's test-firing of a medium-range ballistic missile is "absolutely unacceptable," after a closed-door meeting at the UN Security Council. Haley requested urgent talks at the UN after the missile launch, this was the US Ambassador's first action taken to the council after she was appointed by US President Trump to his administration.
"We have confirmed that Iran did have a medium-size missile launch testing on January 29. This is absolutely unacceptable. They know that they are not supposed to be doing ballistic missile testing of anything that can carry warheads," Haley told reporters.
"The US envoy said that the missile launched by Iran on Sunday was carrying a 500-kilogram payload and had a range of 300 kilometers, that is more than enough to be able to deliver a nuclear weapon."
"I will tell the people across the world that is something we should be alarmed about. The United States is not naive. We are not going to stand by. You will see us call them out. We are committed to making them understand that this is not anything that we will ever accept," she added.
Haley also added that America wanted to shoot down its supplies of missile technology to Tehran, and said that no other country should be supplying Iran with any of the technology which allows such dangerous missile tests.
