UN Security Council to urgently discuss Iran deal breach

The United Nations Security Council scheduled “urgent consultations” for today to discuss what a US official said was Iran’s weekend test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of a UN Security Council resolution pertaining to the landmark nuclear deal that came into effect last year.

The consultations, called for by the US government, are scheduled to be held after the Council’s scheduled meeting on Syria today.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that Iran test-launched on Sunday a medium-range ballistic missile that exploded after traveling 1,010 kilometres.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif neither confirmed nor denied a missile launch. He added that Tehran would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country and that its missile tests are not part of a nuclear accord with world powers or a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the deal.

That resolution, ratified in a July 2015 accord between Iran and six world powers under which it scaled back its nuclear program to defuse concerns it could be used to make atomic bombs, provided Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions.

The resolution also placed provisions to prevent Iran from expanding its ballistic missile weapons programme that could potentially strike targets in the Middle East, including most of Iran’s Arab neighbours.

The United States argues that Iran’s latest missile test is potentially a breach of the nuclear deal that was ratified by a UNSC resolution.

This will potentially be seen as a test of whether or not US President Donald Trump will aggressively police the nuclear deal as he repeatedly pledged to do during his election campaign. Trump was renowned for rubbishing former President Barack Obama’s diplomacy offensive with Iran, calling the nuclear accord “a bad deal”.