Iran Plans More Missiles After Threat of Sanctions

Iranian officials have lined up to underline the country’s push to buttress missile capabilities after reports that the USA administration planned new sanctions on the Islamic Republic in spite of a nuclear accord. Congress has been notified of those deliberations.

“I am disappointed that the Administration has delayed punitive action in response to Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests”.

The White House expects that Iran will finish the work it needs to trigger implementation of a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in the next couple weeks, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Saturday.

“This measure by the American government and stepped-up sanctions will adversely affect the Islamic Republic of Iran’s good will but it will not go unanswered by the state officials”, he said.

A new United States anti-terrorism measure President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec 18 restricts visa-free travel for anyone who has visited Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan within the past five years.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that while Obama remains committed to combating the Middle Eastern nation’s missile program and the framework of the deal, a timeline has yet to be set for when the new sanctions may be rolled out.

Araqchi said President Rouhani’s letter indicated that Iran’s missile program is not negotiable.

The US is accusing Iran of carrying out two ballistic missile tests-in October and November-in breach of a UN Security Council resolution banning Iran’s development of such weapons systems.

US officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July’s nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers to blacklist entities suspected of involvement in Iran’s missile development.

Iranian officials are vowing to increase Iran’s missile capabilities amid reports from Washington of new sanctions against Tehran for its testing of a ballistic missile in October. As part of the deal, the US committed to unfreezing as much as $100 billion in Iranian oil money frozen in overseas accounts.

The WSJ reported Wednesday that the USA was preparing fresh sanctions against companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates over alleged links to Tehran’s ballistic missile program. In this latest case, he said, “we just have additional work that we need to do as a USA government before we would announce additional designations”. They didn’t directly address the USA decision to delay those sanctions, however. He said there was no provision in the nuclear deal that bans ballistic missiles. He said so far the administration has not taken such action despite acknowledging Iran’s violation of the UNSC resolution.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presidential front-runner, has also backed the deal while calling for its vigorous enforcement.