The State Department on Monday backtracked from its position last week that Iran likely violated a United Nations Security Council resolution when it tested ballistic missiles, and instead indicated it should be up to the U.N. to decide whether a violation occurred.
On Tuesday, spokesman John Kirby made it clear that if it was confirmed that Iran ran ballistic missile tests, those tests would violate a key U.N. Security Council resolution.
“[I]f these reports are true, then yes, they are in violation of [resolution] 2231,” he said Tuesday. On Wednesday, he followed up by saying that if the tests were conducted, “there’s no question that that’s a violation” of the resolution.
But on Monday, Kirby refused to say Iran was in “violation” of the resolution at all, and instead said that having confirmed the missile tests, Iran’s actions don’t appear to be “in keeping with their obligations.”
“We have concluded that it is not in keeping with their obligations, and therefore, we’re going to have the council take it up,” he said.
When pressed on the different choice of words, Kirby snapped, “I’m not going to get into a debate over verbs here.”
When pressed further, he indicated that the U.S. now believes its up to the U.N. Security Council to decide if a violation occurred.
“We believe that activity … is not consistent with what they are called upon to do in the resolution,” Kirby said. “Therefore, we believe, since we’ve now determined that these launches did occur with missile technology that they shouldn’t be testing, we believe that it’s important for the council to take this up.”
“And the council can have this discussion about whether it was technically a violation or not,” he added. But he added finally, “I’m not going to get into the technical definition of ‘violate.'”
