Iran Has Not Violated Commitments on Ballistic Missile Launches - Moscow

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Tehran has not breached its international commitments on ballistic missile launches.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow believes that Iran has not violated its international commitments on ballistic missile launches, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control said Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, media reports emerged that Iran had carried out a test ballistic missile launch.

"The Iranians are not violating anything. There is not a word in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) about missiles, only the [UN] resolution, to be more precise the addendum to the resolution mentions them. But again, we are talking about a 'call upon' [not actual ban]," Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"It is impossible to violate an appeal, it can only be ignored, and that's what is happening…So, the accusations [against Iran] sound unconvincing, because the new resolution mentions only nuclear-capable missiles…but nobody has ever managed to prove that those [Iranian] missiles have been specifically designed to carry nuclear warheads," Ulyanov stressed.

Western officials claim that Iran's recent ballistic missile tests involved missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and were carried out in defiance of UNSC resolution 2231, adopted last July to endorse the JCPOA.