(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Canberra March 15 (QNA) - Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected a US argument that the test-firing of Iranian missiles last week violated a UN resolution.
During a meeting with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop on Tuesday Zarif had a detailed conversation about legal and technical issues surrounding Iran’s test-firing of two ballistic missiles The Washington Post reported.
The United States called a Security Council meeting on Monday to protest the launches which Secretary of State John Kerry called a violation of UN resolutions that "could invite additional sanctions." The US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said after Monday’s closed meeting that the ballistic missiles "were designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons" and called the launches "dangerous destabilizing and provocative".
But Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that Moscow had no information that the missiles could carry nuclear weapons and that there was no violation of the resolution.
At issue is the Security Council resolution adopted after the Iranian nuclear deal was signed last year calling for Iran not to launch any ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
Zarif said that Iran had not violated resolution 2231 but that the tests may have violated the resolution it superseded 1929 which used different language."First of all it doesn’t use obligatory terms that are used in the Security Council so Iran is not obliged by 2231 it calls upon Iran" Zarif told reporters at Australia’s Parliament House. "Secondly it creates a narrower definition of the missiles. That is missiles that are designed to be capable not capable designed to be capable of carrying nuclear war heads" he added.
Bishop did not express an opinion on whether the tests had breached resolution 2231."Having heard the foreign minister’s explanation it is Australia’s position that should the UN Security Council wish to investigate this matter then that would be the proper legal process for it to do so" Bishop said. (QNA)