Iran Showcases Short-Range Ballistic Missiles Amid Vienna Talks on JCPOA

The missiles were showcased a few days after the latest round of talks on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal kicked off in Vienna. The US State Department reportedly said that Iran should "add real urgency" to the negotiations or risk losing any chance of the accord being revived.

Three Iranian short-range ballistic missiles have been put on display in central Tehran, with the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps describing them as already-known models.

The showcase of the missiles, known as Dezful, Qiam, and Zolfaghar with official ranges of up to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), come amid the ongoing Vienna talks on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Dezful ballistic missile on a dual launcher pic.twitter.com/zRhCua8HHS

— Tal Inbar (@inbarspace) January 15, 2021

The latest round of talks on the JCPOA began in the Austrian capital after a short pause on Monday, with the US State Department reportedly saying that Iran should "add real urgency" to the Vienna negotiations or risk losing any chance of the accord being revived.

Last month, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the US hadn't made any suggestions that could lead to the revival of the JCPOA or the drafting of a new deal during the five-way talks in Vienna.

#IRGC on Thursday unveiled #Dezful smart surface-to-surface ballistic #missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), indicating #Iran's latest #military might as it celebrates the 40th anniversary of the #IslamicRevolution. pic.twitter.com/qiiO0Sman2

— Ovain Ali (@AliiOvain) February 8, 2019

Iran expects the US to "offer a tangible text", in which case an agreement can be reached "in the shortest possible time", the spokesman said.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 group of countries — the US, China, France, Russia, the UK plus Germany — and the EU. The agreement obligated Tehran to scale back its nuclear programme and significantly decrease its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal's adoption.

In May 2018, the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran a year later to announce that it was starting to scale back its own JCPOA commitments. The Biden administration signalled its readiness to return to the agreement, with Iran saying that the White House should first scrap all sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Tehran has repeatedly resisted US and European pressure to reduce its missile power, underscoring the need to defend itself against foreign aggression and saying that Iran's missile programme "cannot and will not be negotiated".

The Islamic Republic is known to possess more than 1,000 short- and medium-range missiles, and is reported to have ramped up its development and production following the US exit from the JCPOA.