Iran’s missile program defensive in nature: Academic

Press TV has interviewed Foad Izadi, professor at University of Tehran, about the Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissing a recent NATO communiqué concerning the Islamic Republic’s missile program as “a repetition of past baseless allegations.”

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: First of all how do you see the final communiqué of NATO at the end of the Warsaw summit?

Izadi: I think it is very much a political communiqué. The reason the United States and its NATO allies are putting pressure on Iran for its missile program actually has two bases, two reasons for this. One reason is they have been pressuring Iranian government for different things for the last 30 some years. That is one problem they have, the problem with the Iranian government.

The other problem they have in more recent years is with Russia. They are doing things in NATO countries that is upsetting the Russian government, they are putting missiles and other military equipment that is in line with their policy of pressuring the Russian government and when the Russian government asks NATO why are they doing this, they bring up Iran and they use Iran as an excuse for what they are doing in NATO and the reality everybody knows, the Russian government knows, the Iranian government knows and NATO knows that the real reason for the deployment of different missile technologies in Eastern Europe is not Iran, that they are trying to pressure Russia and they are trying to show force toward the Russian government.

So these are the real reasons behind the communiqué and as you know Iran’s missile program is defensive in nature, Iran’s ballistic missile program is not prohibited under the UN resolution 2231, the last resolution we have, you know Iran went through two years of negotiations on its nuclear program and even John Kerry, US Secretary of State, had said that Iran had four ways of reaching and making a nuclear weapon and he says, he has said this many times in the last many months, that all of those four pathways to a nuclear weapon are blocked.

Obviously Iran never wanted to make any nuclear weapons but even the US government is acknowledging that there is no way on earth that Iran can make a nuclear weapon and if that is the case which is, then the idea of Iran using missiles and putting a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile is foolish. That is not going to happen. Why? Because Iran does not have nuclear weapons, Iran does not have the capability of making nuclear weapons and so if you look at the details of what is going on, you realize that there are two objectives. One is to pressure Iran for different excuses, they have been doing that for 37 years, and then the fight that they are doing, they are having with Russia, Iran is being used in that fight also.

Press TV: There is also the question of the logic and reasoning used behind these comments made by NATO countries, by the United States, by Germany claiming that Tehran’s missile tests are inconsistent with the UN resolution. Iran has time and again stated that its missile program defensive in nature is separate from the issue of the JCPOA signed with the P5+1 and it does not, in any way, violate the UN Security Council resolution 2231?

Izadi: Yes and this is also what the US government officials have said that Iran has not violated JCPOA, Iran’s test of missiles is not a violation of JCPOA, and this is what Iranian government says. This is also what the US government has said a number of times in the last many months and what Iran says is that since Iran does not have any nuclear weapons, since Iran is not able to make any nuclear weapons, then the idea of Iran putting a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile and threatening someone with it is foolish because Iran does not have the means of doing that.

So what Iran is saying is based on facts and some of these facts are even acknowledged by the other side and as I said the problem we are having now, the problem of US-Iran relations is one problem, the problem of US-Russia relations is another problem that is having an effect on the conversation.

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