Iran will never negotiate over its military capabilities, the foreign ministry spokesman told reporters on Monday, when asked about Western demands to limit Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
“Iran has never discussed its military capabilities with anyone and never will,” Esmail Baghaei said in response to a question if Iranian diplomats discussed possible limitations on ballistic missiles when they met European representatives last week.
The issue of curbing Iran’s long-range missiles has been discussed for years. When the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement was signed, Iran pledged not to build missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. The United Nations describes the agreement as part of Resolution 2231, which formalized the JCPOA deal. “Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231 (2015) calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
Iran has continued the research and development of ballistic missiles, maintaining that they are not designed to carry nuclear weapons. However, the first Trump administration, upon withdrawing from the JCPOA, demanded that Iran halt its missile program as part of the preconditions for negotiating a new nuclear deal.
Twice last year, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel. While most were intercepted by Israeli and allied air defense systems, some managed to cause damage within Israel. Although Iran has not developed nuclear weapons, its ballistic missiles could be modified to carry warheads if it chooses to pursue them in the future, potentially following the North Korean model.
If Donald Trump returns to the White House, Iran could face an even stricter sanctions regime, worsening an economic crisis that has persisted despite the current relatively lax enforcement of sanctions. In Tehran, government officials and politicians have increasingly called for negotiations with the incoming administration to ease US sanctions. However, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has yet to signal any willingness to compromise on key issues, such as high-level uranium enrichment or the ballistic missile program.
Baghaei also implicitly repeated an Iranian threat that if UN sanctions are brought back this year as part of the JCPOA “snapback mechanism,” Iran might withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
When a reporter asked the spokesman about leaving the NPT as a retaliatory option, Baghaei said, “If the snapback mechanism is used as a tool to pressure Iran or extract concessions, our response will be proportional. It has been clearly stated that any misuse of this mechanism means there will no longer be justification for Iran to remain in certain existing agreements. This position has been expressed before as well.”
Source » iranintl