"If Iran violated agreement, will be serious discussions"
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:54 pm
The United States is reviewing several reports that Iran launched a ballistic missile last month in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Tuesday. "The U.S. is conducting a serious review of the reported incident," Power told reporters after a meeting of the Security Council on unrelated issues.
She added that if Washington confirmed the reports that Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile on Nov. 21 in violation of U.N. resolutions, the United States would bring the issue to the 15-nation council and seek appropriate discussions at multiple levels.
Several agencies reported that Iran tested a Ghadr-110, a spinoff of the Shahab-3 missile, held near Chabahar, a port city near Iran's border with Pakistan. It was a liquid-fueled missile with a 1,900 km (1,180 mile) range and was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Under that deal, reached on July 14, most sanctions on Iran will be lifted in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. According to a July 20 resolution endorsing that deal, Iran is required to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.
In October, the United States, Britain and France called for the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee to take action over another test by Tehran of a nuclear-capable missile that month that they said violated U.N. sanctions.
So far, no action has been taken by the committee and it appears the matter was dropped by the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement condemning what he described as the lack of response to Iranian missile violations.
"Iran violates U.N. Security Council resolutions because it knows neither this administration nor the U.N. Security Council will take any action. In the mean time the U.N and the U.S. have given into all of Iran's demands which have increased week by week," said Corker.