Senior MP: Parliament to Reject Restrictions on Iran’s Access to Ballistic Missiles

A senior Iranian parliamentarian underlined the parliament’s strong opposition to any restrictions which would prevent Iran’s access to ballistic missiles.

“The parliament will reject any limitations on the country’s access to conventional weapons, specially ballistic missiles,” Tehran MP Seyed Mehdi Hashemi told FNA on Saturday.

He underlined that restrictions on Iran’s access to ballistic missiles are among issues that should be revised in the UN Security Council’s draft resolution.

Earlier today, Commander of the IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari underlined that there are still some concerns lingering about the sum-up agreement reached between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) and the relevant draft resolution to be adopted by the UN Security Council.

“There are some concerns about the sum-up of the nuclear negotiations and the draft resolution of the UN Security Council,” Major General Jafari told reporters.

“We should still see what happens in practice,” he said.

He pointed to his talks with Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi on the same issue, and said, “I have just spoken to Mr. Salehi about the same issues and there is a concern, specially about the resolution, that we hope will be resolved God willingly.”

Iranian officials have on different occasions underscored that the country’s missile program is non-negotiable, stressing that the talks with the six world powers are limited to the nuclear issue.

Also earlier today, Deputy Commander of the IRGC for Political Affairs Brigadier General Rasoul Sanayee Raad reiterated that Tehran would never accept its defensive capabilities, specially its ballistic missile program, to come under negotiation in any talks.

“Iran’s military capabilities, including access to ballistic missiles, are no bargaining chip or agenda,” Brigadier General Sanayee Raad told FNA.

He reiterated that supporting the nuclear negotiating team does not mean accepting all conditions of the other side, and said, ” Negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) will be merely confined to nuclear issues.”

In relevant remarks in March, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran would never accept negotiating its ballistic missiles and other defense capabilities with the world powers.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s nation, government and Armed Forces all believe that the country’s defensive capabilities, specially the ballistic missiles, will never be negotiable at all. This is a message which should be understood by the bullying powers which raise excessive demands,” Hajizadeh said, addressing a ceremony to unveil a new long-range ground-to-ground cruise missile system, named ‘Soumar’, in Tehran on March 8.

He downplayed the effects of sanctions on Iran’s defensive programs, and said the Soumar missile system unveiling ceremony had this message for the country’s opponents that such hi-tech products and capabilities are developed and produced in large numbers, while Iran is under the toughest “sanctions that are described by the enemies as harsh and bitter”.

Iran and the six world powers struck a deal in Vienna on Tuesday.

The hitherto elusive agreement was finally nailed down on Tuesday in the ritzy Palais Coburg Hotel in the Austrian capital of Vienna, where negotiators from Iran and the six other countries had recently been spending over two weeks to work out the remaining technical and political issues.

The agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will be presented to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which will adopt a resolution in seven to 10 days making the JCPOA an official document.