- The medium-range ballistic missile was tested on Sunday and exploded after 630 miles, a US official said on Monday
- The test was carried out from a site near Semnan, 140 miles east of Tehran
- The last time this type of missile was test launched was in July 2016
- Iran defense minister Brigadier Gen Hossein Dehqan said in September that such missiles would be produced by the country.
- President Donald Trump has said he will stop Tehran's missile program
- A UN resolution approving the nuclear deal 'called upon' Iran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles for up to eight years
Under the UN resolution approving the nuclear deal that was made in 2015, Iran is 'called upon' to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.
Critics of the deal have said the language is ambiguous and does not make compliance obligatory, while Tehran says the missiles it has tested are not specifically designed to carry nuclear warheads.
This month, Iranian lawmakers approved plans to increase military spending, including expanding the long-range missile programme.
On Sunday, Trump spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and the two 'agreed on the importance of rigorously enforcing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and of addressing Iran's destabilizing regional activities,' the White House said in a statement.
Launching a ballistic missile could fall under 'destabilizing regional activities'.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he planned to push Trump to renew sanctions against Iran during a visit to Washington next month.
In what is being seen as a challenge to US President Donald Trump, Iran tested a 4,000 kilometer range (2,500 miles) ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, US officials said Monday.
Terming the test a “flagrant breach” of UN Security Council resolutions, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promptly demanded the reimposition of sanctions against Iran and said he would discuss with Trump a reevaluation of the “entire failed nuclear accord” that the Obama Administration and other P5+1 countries agreed with Iran in 2015.
Netanyahu, who is set to meet Trump at the White House next month, said he would urge a resumption of sanctions against Iran for missile testing, and “additional sanctions against [Iranian] terrorism.” He would also discuss with Trump the “handling of this whole failed nuclear accord.”
The nuclear deal, intended to thwart Iran’s rogue nuclear program and championed by President Barack Obama as a “game-changer,” has been consistently castigated by Netanyahu as “a bad deal” that actually paves the way for an Iranian nuclear arsenal.
Asked about the missile test, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said they were looking into the report.
“We’re aware that Iran fired that missile. We’re looking into the exact nature of it,” Spicer said.
“My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran,” Trump said at the conference in March 2016, calling the controversial agreement signed between the P5+1 world powers and Tehran “catastrophic for America, for Israel and for the whole of the Middle East.” Later in the speech he called to “at the very least” implement the deal that lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for it curbing its nuclear program.
Since Trump’s election in November, his advisers have signaled that he would not unilaterally walk away from the agreement unless Tehran violated its terms.
Along with Israel, Saudi Arabia has been one of the Middle Eastern countries most opposed to the nuclear deal.
During their call on Sunday, Trump and King Salman also committed to “address Iran’s destabilizing regional activities” and reaffirmed their commitment to the US-Saudi Arabia strategic alliance.
MARINE Le Pen will lead the French presidential elections after the first round of voting, according to a new poll.
The Front National chief is set receive more than a quarter of the vote, ahead of Thatcher admirer François Fillon, who is on 22 per cent, and former economy minister Emmanuel Macron, who is on 21 per cent, the Kantar Sofres one-point poll revealed.
Benoît Hamon, a staunch Socialist and the surprise winner of Sunday’s left-wing primary, is set to win 15 per cent of the first-round presidential vote.
But despite being guaranteed a place in the second round of the election Mrs Le Pen is set to lose the presidential race to one of her two rivals.
According to the poll, published by Le Figaro, hop against Mr Fillon, the Front National chief would get 40 per cent of the vote while Mr Fillon would win 60 per cent.
And against Mr Macron, Mrs Le Pen would win 35 per cent of the vote while the left's "rising star" would take 65 per cent.
Under the unlikely scenario of a showdown between Mr Fillon and Mr Macron, the rebellious socialist will win the presidential race with 58 per cent of the total vote.
A climactic showdown between Hungary and George Soros is rapidly approaching.
Three weeks after Hungary announced it would launch a crackdown on all George Soros-funded non-governmental organizations, the country's foreign minister doubled down, and told RT that the activities of NGOs funded by George Soros in Hungary are “anti-democratic,” as they want to undermine the government in Budapest.
Soros “would like this government to fail, he would like to kind of fire this government because he doesn’t like our approach, doesn’t like our policies,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze. “We find it very anti-democratic if someone from abroad would like to influence Hungarian voters on whom to vote for,” he asserted. Several days before the interview, the Hungarian parliament began to discuss a bill allowing authorities to audit NGO executives and request detailed reports on their foreign donations.
As reported earlier in January, the chairman of the ruling Fidesz party Szilard Nemeth said that “these organizations must be pushed back with all available tools, and I think they must be swept out, and now I believe the international conditions are right for this with the election of the new president [Donald Trump].” Last September, Nemeth, who is also the deputy chairman of Hungary’s National Security Committee, submitted a list of 22 NGOs “connected to the Soros network for the purpose of having these organizations screened.”
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