Washington – White House: Iran Missile Test A Likely UN Violation

Washington – There are “strong indications” that Iran violated U.N. Security Council resolutions related to ballistic missiles when it test fired a new missile, the White House said Tuesday .

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that when it comes to Iran’s ballistic missile program, “unfortunately, that’s not new.”

“We have seen Iran almost serially violate the international community’s concerns about their ballistic missile program,” Earnest said.

He stressed, however, that those violations are “entirely separate” from the historic nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers.

“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.

At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner added that the U.S. intended to raise the incident at the U.N., “and then we’ll continue to do this for any and all Iranian violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.” He called the missile test “deeply concerning.”

Iranian state TV reported on Sunday that the Iranians successfully test fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile.

It was the first such test since Iran and world powers agreed to the nuclear deal. The agreement called on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Iran says none of its missiles is designed for that purpose.