Iran successfully launched a missile that can deliver satellites into orbit on Thursday, state media reported, an action that the Unites States said breaches a UN Security Council resolution.
The missile test comes two days after the US House of Representatives approved a bill that would impose additional sanctions against the country, and Russia and North Korea.
Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of the rocket, mounted on a launchpad carrying pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The rocket launch violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday, because of its potential use in ballistic missile development.
That resolution, which endorsed a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, calls upon Iran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such technology. It stops short of explicitly barring such activity.
The United States this month imposed new economic sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile programme, and said Tehran’s “malign activities” in the Middle East had undercut any “positive contributions” from the 2015 accord curbing its nuclear programme.
At least 15 Iranian missile launches are said to have taken place since the JCPOA was signed in July 2015 between Iran and P5+1 world powers.
