Iran’s Ballistic Missile Test Violates UN Resolution - Expert Panel

A UN panel has prepared a confidential report suggesting that Iran has violated a UN Security Council resolution by launching a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, and should be punished with new sanctions.

Tehran’s test firing of a medium-range Emad rocket in October was investigated by the panel and is now considered to be in violation of a UN resolution, Reuters wrote.

The ten-page report, to be discussed Tuesday at the UNSC, suggests that the rocket was designed to carry a nuclear warhead.

Under UN standards, rockets that can carry a 500 kg payload with a range of at least 300 km (186 miles) are capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

"[T]he launch of the Emad has a range of not less than 1,000 km with a payload of at least 1,000 kg and that Emad was also a launch 'using ballistic missile technology'," the report read. "On the basis of its analysis and findings the Panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929."

Following the launch, talks by the U.S. Congress over the possible implementing of new sanctions on Iran were triggered. Washington released a statement following the report’s publication, claiming that new restricting measures could be imposed on Tehran.

Following the Emad firing it was suggested that the UN could take steps including blacklisting additional Iranian individuals or entities, Reuters said, citing diplomats. Despite an intention to implement sanctions by the US and the EU, Russia and China could block the move, according to the media outlet.

The test launch is not technically a violation of the nuclear agreement reached in July between Iran and P5+1 group, diplomats quoted by Reuters noted, adding that Washington could be placed in an “awkward position,” if it remained critical of the test launch.

The news came on Tuesday, on the same day the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog probing into Iran’s nuclear program, found no evidence that Tehran intended to create a nuclear weapon. The outcome of the 12-year inquiry is seen as a key to lifting UN, EU and US sanctions on Tehran, and, as expected, was opposed by the US and Israel.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that results of the IAEA probe leave “serious doubts and outstanding issues,” without clarifying what those doubts and issues specifically are.