Iran’s Missile Tests Not in Breach of Nuclear Deal: EU’s Mogherini
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Iran’s ballistic missile tests do not constitute a violation of the July 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers.
Speaking at joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Saturday, Mogherini rejected the notion that the Islamic of Iran’s missile test have breached the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
She said that in her meeting with Zarif earlier on Saturday, the two sides discussed the issue.
The EU foreign policy chief added that the tests do not contravene the JCPOA and that the EU is not worried about the issue.
Heading a high-ranking economic and political delegation, Mogherini arrived in Tehran on Saturday to meet senior Iranian officials.
Her remarks came after a missile exercise by the IRGC in early March raised hue and cry in the West.
The IRGC Aerospace Division test-fired a number of advanced ballistic missiles with pin-point accuracy in the drill.
IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari described the message of the missile drill as security for Iran and its neighboring countries.
On March 14, the UN Security Council convened a session to study the issue, but said in a statement that it needed more technical information to determine whether or not the launches were a breach of a UNSC resolution that was approved after the JCPOA.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015, signed the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement that terminated all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program.
Afterwards, the 15-memebr United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed the JCPOA.
Resolution 2231 calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”
Iranian officials have time and again reiterated that none of the country’s missiles have been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, because nuclear weapons have basically no place in Iran’s defense doctrine.
