Iran will continue to produce missiles and will use them whenever it needs to defend itself, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, according to Reuters. In a speech in Parliament, he said that doing so violates no international agreements.
This comes within days of the United States House of Representatives voting for new sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump had said he would not certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear deal. He had even threatened to terminate the deal if the US Congress did not take a tougher stance on Iran.
Under the 2015 deal, Iran had agreed to cut down on its uranium programmes so that international sanctions against it could be removed.
“We have built, are building and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements,” Rouhani said. “We will produce any weapons of any kind that we need and stockpile it and use it at anytime to defend ourselves.”
Rouhani also criticised the US over Trump’s refusal to certify that Tehran was complying with the deal. “Because of the behaviour it has adopted, America should forget any future talks and agreements with other countries,” he was quoted as saying.
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