newly-upgraded Sayyad-3 air defense missiles on display during an inauguration of its production line in Iran
The move was a response to recent American sanctions
The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2017 - Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to increase funding for the country’s military forces and ballistic missile program, the country’s latest response to the renewed pressure of sanctions leveled by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The parliamentary almost unanimously approved a bill outlining an allocation of around $609 million, half of which is to go to Iran’s ballistic-missile program, a focus of the recent U.S. sanctions.
Another $61 million would go toward nuclear development, Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini, the spokesman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, told state television.
The move was a response to recent American sanctions, including U.S. legislation targeting Iran’s ballistic missile program and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful military body whose Quds Force wing oversees Iran’s involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Syria.
They were part of a package of sanctions also targeting Russia and North Korea. Mr. Trump signed the legislation early this month.
Iran’s Guardian Council, a body composed of legal and clerical experts who vets legislation for its constitutionality and compliance with Islamic law, must approve the bill before it becomes law.
Iran sees the U.S. sanctions as violations of the landmark nuclear deal it reached in 2015 with six world powers including the U.S. The deal sought to ensure Iran couldn’t produce nuclear warheads by curbing its nuclear enrichment program. In exchange, Tehran got relief from sanctions.
“If the Americans impose sanctions on Iran in violation of the [nuclear deal], the Iranian government…is obliged to take reciprocal action in nuclear and other affairs,” parliament speaker Ali Larijani said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Iran has continued to test ballistic missiles even after the deal took effect at the beginning of last year, prompting concern in the West. The country has a large arsenal of such missiles, the most advanced of which can reach Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy and the U.S.’s closest regional ally.
The nuclear deal made no mention of ballistic missiles, although a United Nations Security Council resolution tied to its implementation called upon Iran to refrain from developing missiles designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Iran has asserted that its missile development doesn’t violate the spirit or letter of the nuclear deal because the missiles aren’t nuclear-capable and are for self-defense. Mr. Naghavi-Hosseini said Sunday that the new bill also wouldn’t contravene the deal.
But Mr. Trump said in April that Iran was violating the spirit of the deal, which he called a mistake during his presidential campaign and promised to undo should he be elected.
In February, shortly after taking office, Mr. Trump tweeted that Iran was formally “on notice” over its ballistic missile tests.
Mr. Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on Iranian entities connected to ballistic missiles in February, May and July.
Tensions between the two countries frayed further this year after a series of confrontations at sea in the Persian Gulf. U.S. warships regularly patrol the key oil-shipping waterway, which Iran considers to be part of its sphere of influence.
There have been 13 unsafe or unprofessional interactions between Iranian and U.S. maritime forces so far this year, according to a U.S. statement last week.
In addition to funding Iran’s military and nuclear program, Sunday’s parliament bill directed Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the IRGC and other ministries to draft a strategy to confront U.S. threats within six months.
Within three months, the Foreign Ministry was also to identify and blacklist U.S. individuals deemed to support terrorism so that their assets in the country could be frozen and their entry into Iran blocked, IRNA’s report said.
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