Administration and parliament unified in the need to develop Iran’s missile program

As the US President Donald Trump is still stick to his hostile policy toward Iran, Iranian parliament and administration show signs of more unity against the foreign threats. The most important part of their approach is to continue and develop Iran’s missile program to counter the potential threats.

کد خبر: ۷۲۱۰۶۸

تاریخ: ۲۲ مرداد ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۳:۵۵

Tabnak – As the US President Donald Trump is still stick to his hostile policy toward Iran, Iranian parliament and administration show signs of more unity against the foreign threats. The most important part of their approach is to continue and develop Iran’s missile program to counter the potential threats.

Iranian news outlet Press TV reports that Brigadier General Amir Hatami, who has been nominated as defense minister in President Hassan Rouhani’s new cabinet, has vowed to continue boosting Iran's missile program.

Briefing a group of lawmakers on his future plans on Saturday, Hatami said that the current situation is special as the enemies have imposed sanctions on Iran’s military field in a bid to weaken it.

"The enemy is stationed in the region, bringing weapons to the region and trying to damage the country’s defensive might, but we have set objectives in our plan to counter the move,” he added. The Iranian general also hailed achievements made in both missile and defense industry sectors and stressed that this trend should continue.

"The president has issued a strict written order for reinforcing the country’s defensive might while Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] also has clear plans in that regard,” he said.

Hatami’s remarks comes as the Iranian parliament voted Sunday to allocate $520 million on the development of its own missile program in response to US sanctions. "The Americans should know that this was our first action," Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said after stating that the majority voted for a package "to confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region."

The Iranian plan would require Iran's government and armed forces to draw up a strategy to counter US violations of human rights around the world, and to support Iranian bodies and individuals affected by US sanctions.

The measure would also allocate over $260 million each to Iran's ballistic missile program and the Quds Force - the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Government representative Abbas Araqchi was also present in the parliament session. He described the legislation as wise and said that government of President Rouhani would support it.

It should be noted that on July 29, the US Senate approved a bill on new non-nuclear sanctions against Iran over the country's missile program and human rights violations. The move has been widely criticized by the Iranian senior officials, saying that the US bill violated the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA was concluded in July 2015 between Iran, the European Union and the P5+1 group of nations: the United States, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and China. Under the terms of the agreement, nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for assurances that Tehran’s nuclear program would remain peaceful.