Iran will maintain its aerospace program despite warnings from the United States, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Yavad Zarif said Wednesday.
Interviewed by the British news agency Reuters in New Delhi (capital of India), the Persian top diplomat has rejected a recent US threat to Iran for launching space rockets. Nothing in international law prohibits the Iranian satellite program, stressed the Persian foreign minister.
As for Tehran’s position on the 2015 nuclear agreement after the US exit, Zarif explained that one of the options available to Tehran is to abandon the pact established in 2015 between Iran and the 5 + 1 Group (USA, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, plus Germany), but it is not the only one on the table.
The US in May of last year, abandoned the Comprehensive Plan of Joint Action (PIAC or JCPOA) and has resumed, after two rounds, all sanctions lifted by virtue of the agreement, ratified however by Council resolution 2231 United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened Iran with economic and diplomatic consequences if it maintains its plans and launches three spacecraft in the coming months.
The American diplomat said Iranian satellites would violate resolution 2231, for using the same technology as ballistic missiles.
“Neither Iran’s missile launches nor Iran’s missile tests violate resolution 2231. It is the US the one that is objectively not fulfilling it, reason why it is not in conditions to give lessons to anybody on the matter,” tweeted Zarif the 3rd of January.
The Iranian authorities have repeatedly made it clear that Resolution 2231 does not prohibit Iran from testing ballistic missiles, but merely calls on the country to refrain from developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
ftm / mla / tmv / mjs
Translated by JRE / AR
