Iranian commander: We’re doubling our missile activities
Iran remains unfazed by United States sanctions over its ballistic missile program, boasts of doubling its efforts to produce missiles.
Iran remains unfazed by the United States sanctions imposed on it over its ballistic missile program and is continuing its anti-American rhetoric.
In fact, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps on Saturday said that Iran has actually stepped up the process of boosting its missile capabilities since the United States asked to curb them.
“We doubled our activities and the American demands from Iran had an opposite result,” the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Division, Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, said, according to PressTV.
“Today, the enemies are bringing up the issue of missile-related sanctions and expecting us to back down. But, the IRGC’s reaction to this American demand will be aggressive,” he added.
Hajizadeh said the United States has not dropped its hostile policies toward the Islamic Republic despite the nuclear deal which went into force earlier this month.
“Has the enemy abandoned its intentions for hostile moves? Does the (Islamic) Revolution have no problem anymore? That’s not the case,” he said, according to PressTV.
“Our enemies, especially America, are still saying, ‘all options are on the table’. They are after certain goals in a number of fields, including the military and war, targeting the country’s security, culture and economy because they have a problem with the essence of the establishment and their problem is not nuclear,” added Hajizadeh.
The United States recently announced sanctions on 11 entities and individuals connected to the Iranian missile program. The new sanctions came as other sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program were lifted.
The new American missile sanctions come after Iran conducted an Emad medium range ballistic missile test on October 10, and tested another ballistic missile a month later.
But Iranian officials have continued to declare that Iran will not abandon its missile program.
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan said on January 18 that the Islamic Republic will unveil new domestically-designed and manufactured missiles in the near future in defiance of the new American sanctions.
He was echoing an earlier statement by the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who said Tehran would continue building its controversial ballistic missile program.
Hajizadeh said Saturday, “The Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) had said before that ‘our problems with the Americans are not nuclear and that they will go after missile and other issues.’ Today, we see his predictions were right.”
“We have never trusted America and will never do so. Neither will we let a forging of relations with America,” he added, according to PressTV.
UN sanctions monitors confirmed the Emad rocket tested on October 10 is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, making it a violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
Iranian officials deny the country’s missiles have designed to carry nuclear warheads.
