Iran has reportedly removed a missile from a launchpad 140 miles east of Tehran that had been set up and ready to launch.
U.S. officials said Iran pulled the missile sometime within the past few days, and that the missile was the type previously used to launch a satellite into space, according to a Fox News report Tuesday afternoon.
ImageSat International produced an image from Feb. 3 that showed the Safir missile prepped for the launch. Iran has not launched this type of missile into space for two years, but the country recently has started test-launching ballistic missiles.
It wasn’t clear why Iran removed the missile from the launchpad. President Trump has warned Iran over the past few weeks that he will not take military action off the table if the country breaches the Iran nuclear deal, which went into effect in 2015.
When the United Nations Security Council met last week to discuss Iran’s Sunday test-launching of a medium-range ballistic missile, military officials confirmed that the country also secretly tested another missile in early December.
Tehran fired a Shahab-3 on Dec. 6 at Semnan, though the missile’s destination is unknown. The intermediate range ballistic missile is modeled off a North Korean design and has a range of 800 miles. Officials said the test was likely in breach of U.N. Resolution 2231, which was signed after the Iran nuclear deal. It called for a stop to “any activity” related to ballistic missiles’ capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
On Jan. 29, the U.S. learned Iran had fired a ballistic missile approximately 140 miles east of Tehran on Sunday, the first apparent breach of the U.N. resolution. Satellite images showed Iran cleaning up the site and prepping for this Safir missile’s launch.
Iran has carried out six known ballistic missile tests since the nuclear agreement and U.N. resolution took effect in 2015.
