The Peaceable Theocracy

"Iran is now feeling emboldened. The Obama administration failed to respond adequately to Tehran's malign actions ... including weapons transfers, support for terrorism and other violations of international norms."
"[Iran specifically violated the UN ban on] activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using with ballistic missile technology."
"President Trump has severely criticized the various agreements reached between Iran and the Obama administration, as well as the United Nations -- as being weak and ineffective."
"As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice." 
Michael Flynn, U.S. National Security adviser

"[The Islamic Republic will] vigorously continue with its missile activity."
"[Iran] needs no permission from any country for defending itself. [Iran] pays no attention to American threats."
"[U.S. President Donald Trump should] stop the hollow anti-Iran rhetoric."
"This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran … the American government will understand that threatening Iran is useless."
Ali Akbar Velayti — senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  

"Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!"
"Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion."
U.S. President Donald Trump, tweets

"We, as representatives of the great nation of the Islamic Iran, announce our all-out support for the armed forces…and strengthening the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense power within the framework of deterrence strategy as an inevitable necessity for the country’s national security."
Islamic Republic of Iran Parliamentary statement

A MILITARY truck carrying a missile and a picture of Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei drives in a parade marking the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war in Tehran. (photo credit:REUTERS)

"We felt as though their actions were both provocative and in violation."
"[Putting Iran on notice means we make] sure that they understood that we weren't going to sit by and not act on those actions."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer

"These are the newcomers who were not in the world of politics and they were in another world and they have now come to the world of politics and they inflict harm on themselves and others in a fully new atmosphere until they, themselves, and the people around them understand what is going on in the world."
"They [U.S. administration] chanted slogans for years that we are against the Iranian government but support the Iranian people, [but] since this person [Trump] is a special person, he revealed this hypocrisy and displayed what is in their hearts. He took measures which merely target a number of our dear citizens or Muslims and people in other countries."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

File photo of Iranian missile launch 

© AP Photo/ Amir Kholousi, ISNA

As the Islamic Republic of Iran has patiently iterated and reiterated, it is interested in promoting peace, nothing less, nothing else. Its intentions are entirely above-board and geared toward making the world a safer place. Which more than adequately explains their two ballistic missiles test-fired almost a year earlier, one of which was emblazoned with the harmlessly friendly phrase in Hebrew: "Israel must be wiped out".

This being a reality, that the world's greatest bully is falsely recriminating Iran for doing nothing but taking self-defence steps in a hostile world, the testing of ballistic missiles should be completely understandable. Every nation has the right to defend itself against its enemies, Iran no less than any other. This inexplicable and hostile rhetoric against a peaceful nation is unseemly and must stop. On the other  hand, what else can one expect from the office of a gross political novice?

The observation, totally unwarranted, that the expectation that Iran, in exchange for sanctions relief and normalization, would lead the Republic to be amenable to cooperation with the IAEA on nuclear matters and take a break from its sponsorship and arming of terrorist groups was falling by the wayside of naive comeuppance, insults Iran's honour. The Trump administration's view that the former administation's strategy of containment of destabilization emanating from Iran is clearly preposterous, since nothing Iran has ever aspired to would result in destabilization, much less a threat to peace.

The United Nations Security Council which endorsed the 2014 nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran for an eight-year extension of a UN ban on ballistic missile development, called on Iran to desist in carrying out ballistic missile tests. But according to General Hossein Dehghan, Iran's Defence Minister: "We will not let any foreigner meddle with our defence issues". Furthermore without going into inconvenient and no-one's-business details, this was no violation of UN resolutions or of the 2015 nuclear accord, because he said so.

It should be understood that Iran is left with no option but to plan for self-defense. Its current missiles capable of travelling 2,000 kilometres, reaching much of the Middle East, Israel included and placing U.S. bases in the region in their scope are there to ensure that any American or Israeli attacks planned to surprise an unready Iran are kept to a deterrence-minimum.

To that end, along with the medium-range ballistic missile fired last Sunday, a nuclear-capable "Sumar" cruise missile was also tested, according to the German Die Welt newspaper.

[Photo defenseupdate / YouTube ]