Iran Focus
London, 18 Nov – On November 17, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published an article about the Iran’s launching of missiles and exportation of weapons to Syria, in violation of Security Council Resolution 2231.
According to Tasnim News Agency, on November 12, Khamenei’s top advisor who was the regime’s chief of staff until this summer, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, stated, “His excellency (Khamenei) approved launching missile ‘Emad’. No rockets are fired in this country unless having been approved by the Commander in Chief. Even for launching missiles in military drills, permission from the leader of revolution (Khamenei) is needed… he even determines the launching time and decides when it should be fired.”
The missile, ‘Emad’, launched on October 11, 2015, is capable of carrying nuclear warhead, and its launching is in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, ratified on 20 July 2015, which asks Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
Another ballistic missile was launched by the regime in Chah-Bahar area on November 21, 2015, this one called ‘Ghadr’. In March 8, 2016, missiles called ‘Ghadr-F’ with a range of 2000 km and ‘Ghadr-H’ with a range of 1700 km were launched. ‘Emad’ and ‘Ghadr’ missiles are from the ‘Shahab-3’ missile family and are copied from North Korean ‘Nodong 1’ missile. They are all capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that the regime’s military-nuclear activities were carried out with the aim of mounting a nuclear warhead on Shahab-3 missile.
The regime has violated Resolution 2231 on four different occasions during the 16 months since its adoption, and the regime’s military officials stated that these missiles were launched on Khamenei’s direct orders, at the the firing time he specified.
Additonally, the regime has violated the resolution by sending missiles to Syria and building a missile-production factory in that country. On November 11, chief of the armed forces general staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said, “Syria reached a point where Iran created for it missile production industry and missiles in Aleppo in recent years.”
Brigadier Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, announced four days later, that the IRGC missile production factories in Aleppo had been destroyed in the course of the war.
The Iranian regime, with these violations, has endangered the region and the world. The silence of the international community emboldens the regime and furthers this policy.
