State Department says Iran’s actions “are unhelpful and destabilizing.”
Iran glorifies satellite-carrier rocket (archive) Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Saturday launched a new satellite-carrying rocket, The Associated Press reported, citing state TV.
Iranian state TV said the Guard successfully launched the solid-fueled rocket — what it called a Ghaem-100 satellite carrier — and aired dramatic footage of the rocket blasting off from a desert launch pad into a cloudy sky. The report did not reveal the location, which resembled Iran’s northeastern Shahroud Desert.
The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the carrier would be able to put a satellite weighing 80 kg into orbit some 500 kilometers from Earth.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard’s aerospace division, said he hoped the Guard would soon use the rocket to put a new satellite, named Nahid, into orbit, according to AP.
Iran has several times tried to launch satellites into space. In January, a top Iranian official claimed that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had launched a solid-fuel satellite carrier rocket into space and that the test was successful.
A month earlier, Iran claimed it had successfully launched three research satellites into space. According to Ahmad Hosseini, a Defense Ministry spokesman, the rocket used was a Simorgh.
A day later, however, Iran acknowledged that the space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed.
Iran says its satellite program, like its nuclear activities, is aimed at scientific research and other civilian applications.
US officials say that Iran’s satellite launches defy UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
Resolution 2231 enshrined Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States and calls on Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.
Responding to Saturday’s launch, a spokesperson for the US State Department said, according to Reuters, “Such actions are unhelpful and destabilizing.”
“The United States remains concerned with Iran’s continued development of space launch vehicles (SLVs), which pose a significant proliferation concern,” the spokesperson said.
“SLVs incorporate technologies that are virtually identical to, and interchangeable with, those used in ballistic missiles, including longer-range systems.”
The official said launches of SLVs “defy United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, which calls upon Iran not to undertake any activities related to ballistic missiles ‘designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.'”
Washington “continues to use a variety of non-proliferation tools, including sanctions, to counter the further advancement of Iran’s ballistic missile program and its ability to proliferate missiles and related technology to others,” the spokesperson added.
Content retrieved from: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/362300.