Defiant Iran Pledges To Ramp Up Missile Program, In Challenge For Obama

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

Fri Jan 1, 2016 2:08pm EST
DUBAI | BY BOZORGMEHR SHARAFEDIN

A series of Iranian officials vowed on Friday to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal.

"As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities," the Revolutionary Guards' second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

"We don't have enough space to store our missiles. All our depots and underground facilities are full," he said in Friday Prayers in Tehran.

Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan said Iran would boost its missile program and had never agreed to restrictions on it.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-missiles-idUSKBN0UF21G20160101

[7962]

1. "we dont have enough space to store our missiles"

Gee, i thought they wanted to be all cooperative and such.
Wait, no, I never thought that. I said all along that Iran would do what Iran has always done; lie.

[yeoman6987]

2. Great. Now what?

This is a complete mess. I hope the Repugs don't find out about this.

[warrprayer]

3. in cahoots with the gop

Just like they were with Reagan.
I wonder if Trump has already made a secret deal with them?

[7962]

4. Oh please.

[rockfordfile]

8. It's well known about Reagan and Iran

Ronald Reagan one of the worst Presidents in U.S History.

[warrprayer]

10. thank you

At least he said "please"

[warrprayer]

9. I remember quite well

What Iran and the repubs did to Jimmy Carter.
Perhaps you aren't old enough.

[madville]

5. Iran has to test the boundaries

They know Obama and Kerry really wanted a deal to hang their hats on and will bend/break the rules as much as they think they can get away with.

[Purveyor]

6. Iran is preparing, understandably, for a gop or hillary Presidency come 2017 and the high prospects

of an attack on their country.

Russia and Iran may have entered into a nato-like security agreement by then however that would complicate things for the feckless western crusaders.

[cpwm17]

7. The real American exceptionalism is selling the most weapons in the world — by far

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/30/nothing_to_be_proud_of_the_real_american_exceptionalism_is_selling_the_most_weapons_in_the_world_by_far/

The U.S. has just 5 percent of the global population, but sells more than half of its weapons. And this number is increasing.

A new congressional study found that foreign arms sales by the U.S. increased by almost $10 billion in 2014 — up 35 percent.

No other countries even come close to the U.S. in weapons sales. As much as politicians and the media fear-monger about Russia, it sold just $10.2 billion in weapons in 2014 — a decrease from 2013. This pales in comparison to the $36.2 billion in arms sales the U.S. made in the same year....

Who is receiving the many billions of dollars of U.S. weapons? Primarily South Korea, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Leaders of the world's number one exporter of war are upset that a potential future target wants to defend itself.

The next president is likely to be a sociopath, with a love of war. The US is heavily arming Iran's aggressive enemies and Iran is the sociopaths' number one target.

[Leontius]

11. Tell us another one.

[cpwm17]

13. We have too many politicians in the US who think nothing of murdering scores of brown people

on the other side of the world if they think it will allow them to get ahead in US politics. We also have too many voters that have no problem voting for them.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/157067/views-violence.aspx

While the majority of world citizens agree that military attacks targeting civilians are never justified, a decade after 9/11, there is a wide range in the level of support for this view. A clear majority in Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) find military attacks against civilians unacceptable. This is not surprising considering the acute conflicts raging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East.

In contrast, regionally, residents of the U.S. and Canada are most likely to say that military attacks against civilians are sometimes justified. Americans are the most likely population in the world (49%) to believe military attacks targeting civilians is sometimes justified, followed by residents of Haiti and Israel (43%).

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[Purveyor]

12. ^^^this^^^ You hit the 'nail on the head'!

[karynnj]

14. My best guess this is for INTERNAL reasons in Iran while they are COMPLYING to the treaty's terms.

Consider that last month they send many tons of uranium out of the country -- raising the time by which they could have enough nuclear fuel for a missile to something like 9 months -- rather than less than two. They are also beginning to take steps that will make the Arak nuclear plant unusable. All these were the actual actions needed to meet the treaty.

I would guess that these steps are as welcome to their hardliners as the deal was to our hardliners. I suspect that testing a missile was as much a diversion as a real show of strength.

The treaty never dealt with either missiles or terrorism. Clearly, they will need to end support of terrorism before the US were to open relations with them.

The fact of the matter is that the US unilateral sanctions are not the big deal -- the international ones are. The US has not done a huge amount of business with Iran for decades. Alone, we have very little unilateral influence over Iran. You might also notice that Iran did play a role in getting the UN resolution on Syria. (It is far too early to consider that this will lead to either a ceasefire or political solution for Syria -- but it is better that it happened than it would have been had it failed.)