Iran warns US against ‘creating new tensions’ over missile tests

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday warned the United States against creating “new tensions” over Tehran’s ballistic missile tests.

“We hope that Iran’s defence programme is not used by the new US administration… as a pretext to create new tensions,” Zarif said at a press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Zarif has neither confirmed nor denied the US report which claimed on Monday that Iran had tested a medium range ballistic missile.

Relations between Washington and Tehran have strained in recent days with the US President Donald Trump’s decision to ban the entry of nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran, to the United States for three months.

During the press conference, Ayrault said: “France has expressed its concern at Iran’s continuation of its ballistic missile tests on several occasions.”

He said the continued tests “hamper the process of restoring the confidence established by the Vienna agreement.”

Meanwhile, Zarif stressed that Iran’s ballistic missile programme “is not part” of the nuclear agreement because the Iranian missiles “are not designed to carry nuclear warheads”.

A majority of sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted on 16 January 2016 as Tehran agreed to reduce its nuclear programme as part of an agreement signed with world powers.