Iran said on Saturday that it
had successfully tested a new medium-range to defile the warnings from
Washington that such activities were grounds for abandoning their landmark
nuclear deal.
The footage
of the Khoramshahr missile’s launch was carried by State Television after it
was first displayed at a high-profile military parade on Friday in Tehran. It also carried in-flight video from the
nose cone of the missile, which has a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles)
and can carry multiple warheads.
The
Defence Minister “Amir Hatami” insisted as he said in a statement that"As
long as some speak in the language of threats, the strengthening of the
country´s defence capabilities will continue and Iran will not seek permission
from any country for producing various kinds of the missile,
Previous Iranian missile launches have
triggered US sanctions and accusations that they violate the spirit of the 2015
nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers. Iran,
which fought a brutal war with neighbouring Iraq in the 1980s, sees missiles as
a legitimate and vital part of its defence -- particularly as regional rivals
Saudi Arabia and Israel import huge amounts of military hardware from the West.
The test comes at the end of a heated week of diplomacy at the UN General Assembly in New York, where US President Donald Trump again accused Iran of destabilising the Middle East, calling it a "rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos".
Trump
has threatened to bin the nuclear agreement, saying Iran is developing missiles
that may be used to deliver a nuclear warhead when the deal´s restrictions are
lifted in 2025. He is
due to report to Congress on October 15 on whether Iran is still complying with
the deal and whether it remains in US interests to stick by it.
If he
decides that it is not, that could open the way for US lawmakers to reimpose
sanctions, leading to the potential collapse of the agreement. Trump
said on Wednesday he had made his decision but was not yet ready to reveal it. Iran
says all of its missiles are designed to carry conventional warheads only and
has limited their range to a maximum of 2,000 kilometres, although commanders
say they have the technology to go further. That
makes them only medium-range but still sufficient to reach Israel or US bases
in the Gulf.
At
Friday´s military parade, President Hassan Rouhani hit out at those who
"create problems for the peoples of our region every day and boast of
selling arms to the bloodthirsty Zionist regime (Israel) which has been
attacking the peoples of our region for 70 years like a cancerous tumour."
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