USA to raise Iran missile test at United Nations on Wednesday

At a meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday, the U.S. joined by the three European countries presented a report on the missile launch and said the sanctions committee should take “appropriate action”.

Diplomats said the issue could be taken up by the sanctions committee which would make a determination as to whether the launch violates resolution 1929, adopted in 2010.

The four countries reportedly sent a letter to the committee stating that the ballistic missile used by Iran was “inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon”.

The Iran nuclear deal, signed by Iran and six major powers, went into its first phase of implementation Sunday.

Khamenei on Wednesday endorsed the deal but warned the government to be vigilant, saying the United States can not be trusted.

“Iran’s nuclear dossier which was unfairly considered as a threat to global peace and security by being categorized under Chapter Seven on the United Nations, is now removed from that chapter and UNSC has shifted its approach towards Iran’s nuclear program”. He said the missile, named Emad or “pillar” in Farsi, was a technological achievement for Iran – able to be controlled until the moment of impact and to hit targets “with high precision”.

In a letter to President Hasan Rouhani, Khamenei delivered his verdict on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached last July between Iran, the US and five other powers, and laid down his conditions for acceptance.

Investors are looking into opportunities in Iran once sanctions are lifted as expected, UAE-based law firm Al Tamimi & Company has said.

“The behavior and words of the USA government in the nuclear issue and its prolonged and boring negotiations showed that this (nuclear issue) was also another link in their chain of hostile enmity with the Islamic Republic”, Khamenei said.

As the USA, Iran and others mark the formal start of the Iran nuclear agreement, Obama administration officials have confirmed that the findings of a separate but related investigation by the United Nations nuclear watchdog into Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons activity will have no bearing on the deal moving ahead.

In this instance too, the defined restrictions go well beyond any obligations or penalties that have been laid out for Iran in the actual text of the deal.

The deal mandates that Iran consent to inspections meant to determine the extent of its past nuclear weapons work and research.

Additionally, Regulation 2015/1861 provides that fund transfer controls now in place in respect of payments to or from Iranian persons will be repealed on Implementation Day.