Senior U.S. arms control official said on Tuesday that Iran’s missile program is destabilizing the Middle East by providing the armed groups in Lebanon and Yemen with dangerous weapons.
According to Reuters, Iran has been accused by the United States for defying the United Nations Security Council resolution by carrying out a ballistic missile test and two satellite launches since December.
Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, Yleem Poblete, had a speech on the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in which she said:
“Iran’s missile program is a key contributor to increased tensions and destabilization in the region, increasing the risk of a regional arms race.’’ She continued: “Iran must immediately cease activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons and halt the proliferation of missiles and missile technology to terror groups and other non-state actors.”
Poblete also added that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to the Houthis that were fired into Saudi Arabia and unmanned aerial systems to Houthi groups that enable strikes against land-based targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying:
‘’We are committed to aggressively countering Iran’s regional proliferation of ballistic missiles and its unlawful arms transfers.”
Poblete continued her speech against Iran’s actions by urging “all responsible countries’’ to enforce the U.N. Security Council resolutions restricting the transfer of missile-related technologies to Iran, and finished by accusing Iran of pursuing pharmaceutical-based agents for offensive purposes, but did not say in detail.
A reaction by an Iranian diplomat took its place after this, saying that Poblete’s remarks are cheap, unprofessional, false, irrelevant and pathetic, accusing the United States of sabotaging the Geneva forum as he said:
“We should all be truly worried about the U.S. representative’s misbehavior as we all warn that they may turn violent since they lack any human logic to talk and listen in a normal manner as we are used to.’’
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