Iran’s test of a new long-range ballistic missile does not violate the nuclear deal with world powers, but does appear to be a violation of U.N. resolutions barring development of such weapons, the White House and State Department said on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately” the Security Council resolution violation is “not new,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. However, “this is altogether separate from the nuclear agreement that Iran reached with the rest of the world.
“In contrast to the repeated violations of the U.N. Security Council resolution that pertains to their ballistic missile activities, we’ve seen that Iran over the last couple of years has demonstrated a track record of abiding by the commitments that they made in the context of the nuclear talks,” Earnest said.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner would not specify what the Obama administration might do about the violation, but said U.S. officials would raise the issue with the U.N.
“We’re raising this at the U.N. Security Council … and we’re going to take appropriate action. But that’s at the level of the Security Council,” Toner told reporters.
When asked if the United States would take unilateral action to punish Iran, Toner hedged, saying “Let’s let this process play out.”
On Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan announced the successful test of a new generation of Iranian-made long-range missile, dubbed “Emad,” or Pillar.
The missile, with a claimed range of about 900-1,100 miles, has a maneuverable warhead to improve accuracy and complicate anti-missile defenses.
The nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers extends for eight years U.N.-imposed restrictions on Tehran’s development of ballistic missiles, but Iran has publicly rejected any limits.
Toner’s statement on Sunday’s missile test puts the U.S. position in line with that of Tehran, which denied Monday that the test violates the nuclear deal.
The expiration of the U.N. sanctions on ballistic missiles, which was a last-minute concession by Western negotiators, was one of the major arguments critics made against the deal. The Pentagon opposed the move, with Defense Secretary Ash Carter noting at a congressional hearing that it would allow Iran to develop missiles that could hit the United States.
The exact details of the missile test are still being scrutinized, which is why the administration has not formally taken the matter to the United Nations yet, Earnest said.
“This is something that we are continuing to look at,” Earnest said about the details of the launch and whether it violates the Security Council resolution. “The United States certainly takes seriously those violations.”
Washington can work with allies in the region to “counter Iran’s ballistic missile program,” Earnest said, and work with allies to do more on the “interdiction” front.
Even as Iran was flouting one international agreement, on Tuesday its parliament approved the nuclear agreement Tehran struck with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in July.
Iran’s religious body, called the Guardian Council, still must ratify the deal.
Earnest said the two issues must be dealt with separately.
“[W]e have seen Iran live up to some very tough standards when it comes to limiting their nuclear program and, that said, we have been saying all along that the nuclear agreement that Iran reached with the rest of the world will not be predicated on trust, but it will be predicated on the most robust, intrusive set of inspections that have ever been imposed on a country’s nuclear program,” Earnest said.
“So we will be able to verify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement, and if they don’t, there is a very specified set of responses that can be implemented to respond to those violations,” he added.
