NCRI – The Iranian regime announced on Monday that it has test-fired a “high precision ballistic missile with a range of 2000 kilometers” – a violation of United Nations resolution 2231 that prohibits Iran’s regime from firing any missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
“Two weeks ago, we test-fired a missile with a range of 2000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian regime’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi said on Monday. His remarks were carried by the Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
He further claimed that the headquarters of the chief of staff of the regime’s Armed Forces has “allocated 10 percent of defense budget to research projects aimed at strengthening defense power.”
Commenting on the IRGC’s announcement on Monday, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said:
“Regionally, the Iranian regime has received serious blows in Syria in recent days and is more isolated than ever before as was evidenced in the recent resolution of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Domestically, the factional feuding has exacerbated to unprecedented levels. Thus it is facing a significant demoralization among its forces and is resorting to this kind of hollow show of force to cover up its precarious situation and to boost the morale of its forces.”
“The repeated announcements of ballistic missile tests by the mullahs’ regime in violation of UN Security Council resolution 2231 should send a wake-up call to the international community. Silence and inaction by the international community on the Iranian regime’s banned missile tests have a destructive effect and encourage the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism to defy the will of the international community, violate its international obligations and produce lethal weapons with which to threaten the region and the world. These tests warrant a firm response at the UN Security Council with the re-imposition of sanctions targeting the clerical regime in Iran,” he added.
The IRGC conducted several ballistic missile tests in March. At least one of the missiles was emblazoned with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” in Hebrew – setting off an international outcry.
The Iranian regime’s supreme leader on March 30 said missiles were key to his regime’s future, offering support to the IRGC that have drawn criticism from the West for testing ballistic missiles.
“Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors,” the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, was quoted as saying by his website.
“If the Islamic Republic seeks negotiations but has no defensive power, it would have to back down against threats from any weak country.”
