Iran missile reveal a slap in the face to Donald Trump, Israel

IRAN fired off a missile just days after the US threatened to withdraw from a nuclear deal, sparking an angry reaction.

A TV grab taken on September 23, 2017 from the Iranian Republic Islamic Broadcasting (IRIB) shows a Khoramshahr missile being launched from an undisclosed location, a day after it was first displayed at a high-profile military parade in the capital Tehran. Picture: AFP/IRIB TV

JUST days after being called a corrupt dictatorship by the US President, Iran fired off a strong message of its own.

Calling Iran a “reckless regime”, Donald Trump said the country “speaks openly of mass murder, vowing death to America, destruction to Israel and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room”.

Iran didn’t take the comments made during Mr Trump’s maiden speech to the UN General Assembly last week lying down.

On Saturday, defiant Iran claimed it successfully tested the new medium-range Khoramshahr missile, just one day after being on display at a high-profile military parade in Tehran.

State television carried footage of the launch and in-flight video from the nose cone of the missile, which has a range of 2000 kilometres and can carry multiple warheads.

Iran said it had successfully tested the new medium-range missile on Saturday in defiance of warnings from Washington that such activities were grounds for abandoning their landmark nuclear deal. Picture: AFP/RBTV

Mr Trump’s UN speech earned a stinging rebuke from Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who tweeted that his remarks had no place in the 21st Century.

Iran’s missile launch in turn earned further anger from Mr Trump who not only accused Tehran of supporting North Korea but stressed his disapproval of who the missile could target.

Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel.They are also working with North Korea.Not much of an agreement we have!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017

Mr Trump’s words also cast growing uncertainty over whether a nuclear deal clinched with Iran would survive following the launch.

IRAN FIRES UP

Mr Zarif brushed off Mr Trump’s threat, arguing Washington cannot act alone to end the agreement.

“This is not a bilateral agreement,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

“It’s not even a multilateral treaty. It’s a Security Council agreement and the United States is a member of the Security Council.”

He added that Mr Trump’s certification of whether Iran is abiding by the deal — due mid-October — is an “internal procedure” that in itself does not endanger the agreement.

Under the nuclear deal signed in 2015, Iran surrendered much of its enriched uranium, dismantled a reactor and submitted nuclear sites to UN inspection in exchange for Washington and Europe lifting some sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran has lived up to the terms of the nuclear agreement, but Washington and its allies have been angered by Tehran’s other actions.

Mr Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly last week took aim at North Korea and Iran’s nuclear development. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

Since arriving in the White House, Mr Trump has attacked the deal on numerous occasions, vowing to tear it up.

Mr Zarif said Iran will “consider its options” if Mr Trump tells Congress on October 15 he believes it is not complying with the deal and it is not in US interests to stick by it.

“Iran has a number of options, which include walking away from the deal and going back with greater speed with its nuclear program, which will remain peaceful — but which will not address and accept the limitations that we voluntarily accepted over our nuclear program,” he said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country had always pursued peace and sought “no one’s permission to defend our land”.

Robert Einhorn, a former nuclear and policy adviser of Barack Obama told Newsweek​ the message in Saturday’s launch was loud and clear.

“Iran’s public display of the missile and Rouhani’s comments were largely a response to the Trump administration’s declared intention to pressure Tehran to accept limitations on its ballistic missile programs,” he said.

“Rouhani is putting down a strong marker that Iran’s missile programs are not on the negotiating table.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard unveiled its latest ballistic missile capable of reaching much of the Middle East, including Israel, during a military parade last Friday. Picture: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

‘ANOTHER ROCKET MAN’

Mr Trump’s bellicose UN speech last week wasn’t just alarming because he threatened to destroy North Korea, but also raised concerns in another area, a US academic said.

Writing in the Washington Post, Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said Mr Trump’s speech risked giving the world another Rocket Man.

Highlighting what happened when the US walked away from a nuclear deal in 2002 with North Korea allowing it to build up its weapons arsenal, Mr Lewis pointed out the same thing could occur again, only this time with Iran.

He argues that while obviously different, both agreements represented the same thing: lifting international isolation in exchange for a halt in weapons work.

— with AFP/AP

[e-mail]