Iranian Missile Launch Violated UN Security Council Resolutions

Iran’s test-firing of ballistic missiles on Sunday likely violated United Nations Security Council resolutions, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said today.

Politico reported more:

“If the facts are as we believe them to be, it would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Samantha Power said, speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit in Washington.

The State Department also said that it would bring the matter up at the Security Council. …

Power went on to say that one of the “really important features” of the existing nuclear agreement with Iran will be “enforcement of the resolutions and standards” that are already in place.

White House Spokesman Josh Earnest also indicated Tuesday that Iran’s ballistic missile test violated Security Council resolutions.

CBS reported:

There are “strong indications” that Iran violated U.N. Security Council resolutions related to ballistic missiles when it test fired a new missile, the White House said Tuesday.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that when it comes to Iran’s ballistic missile program, “unfortunately, that’s not new.”

“We have seen Iran almost serially violate the international community’s concerns about their ballistic missile program,” Earnest said.

Earnest added that even if Iran was violating international bans on the development of ballistic missiles, it is still abiding by the terms of the nuclear deal it reached with global powers in July.

An annex of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which was passed shortly after the nuclear deal was signed, banned Iran from undertaking “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology” for the next eight years. But a report in August from Iran’s state-run Fars News said that Iran “has not accepted or endorsed the annex, adding that none of its ballistic missiles has been designed to carry nuclear payloads, and thus, its ballistic missile program is no way related to the paragraph.”

During the nuclear negotiations, Iran refused to discuss any limits on its ballistic missile program. Top Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, have said that they will defy any resolutions that limits Iran’s ballistic missile program.

http://www.thetower.org/2436-samantha-power-iranian-missile-launch-violated-un-security-council-resolutions/