Tehran has given the incoming administration of US President Donald Trump an early test of its Middle East policy by launching a ballistic missile test. The test breaches the spirit if not the letter of a 2015 UN resolution passed soon after the international deal on the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program.
The UN resolution called on Iran to refrain from carrying out “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Tehran argues that its ballistic missile tests cannot be related to a nuclear program that it has explicitly abandoned. But it knows its actions will ruffle feathers in Washington: even the administration of Mr Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama was leery of Iran’s ballistic missile program. (CONTINUED - 1079 WORDS)
