Tehran, Iran, Aug. 12
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Iranian top military official Major General Hassan Firouzabadi says the missile tests will continue on time, based on enactments, ordered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His statement was a response to Iranian lawmakers' demand to continue missile tests in the country, Mehr News Agency reported August 12.
Members of the Iranian Parliament in a statement addressed to Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi asked for the resumption of missile tests.
The MPs are signing a statement in which they have asked Firouzabadi to order the resumption of the Islamic Republic's missile tests, MP Ali Taheri said during a parliament session, Fars news agency reported August 10.
He added the request comes as response to recent military threats by the United States.
In a letter addressed to the Parliament last week, Firouzabadi had asked the MPs not to sign Iran's recent nuclear agreement -- called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA - because, he said, wrong interpretations of the deal by the US could affect Iran's military power.
However, he said in the same letter that the deal had some important positive points -- which he categorized under 16 entries that critics have overlooked.
The JCPOA has put bans on Iran's research and building of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
Iranian diplomats who reached the deal with the six world powers called the group P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) refer to this point and say since Iran has no plan to build nuclear-related missiles, its missile program is practically not restricted by the deal.
Some critics inside Iran however believe that the US could claim any sort of missile developed by Iran is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, thus putting strict limits on the country's missile program.
The US has already considered some old versions of Iranian-made missiles such as the Shahab series capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads.
Edited by CN