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US cannot cite UN Security Council resolution on Iran’s missiles: Commentator

Sunday, 02 December 2018 1:58 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 02 December 2018 6:47 PM ]

The United States cannot cite United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 on Iran’s missiles program given the fact that it is the same resolution which endorsed the nuclear deal Washington withdrew from, says a political commentator.

“As a matter of fact resolution 2231 is the same resolution that accompanied the nuclear deal and endorsed the multilateral deal and the US violated the resolution and discarded it the same way that it discarded the nuclear deal after withdrawing from this multilateral agreement. So basically if we were living in a fair world, then this is the US that should have been punished for this disrespecting a decision by UN Security Council … So the United States is not entitled to refer to this resolution,” Mostafa Khoshcheshm told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

“What it calls resolution 2231 with regard to Iran’s missile program is not at all a reference to the conventional missile program of the country. First of all it is a non-binding paragraph in that resolution … Second it asks Iran to avoid testing those missiles that have been designed for carrying WMDs … So basically we are here speaking of a very false and wrong interpretation of resolution 2231 for the propaganda purposes that the United States has,” he added.

Iran has rejected US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claims against its missile capabilities, saying the program is defensive and does not violate the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.

Pompeo claimed in a statement released on Twitter Saturday that Iran was increasing its "testing and proliferation" of missiles and called on the Islamic Republic to "cease these activities."

The test, he said, "violates UNSCR 2231," citing the United Nations Security Council's endorsement of the international nuclear agreement, which the United States abandoned in May.

UN Security Council Resolution 2231 "calls on" Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."