Iran to direct $300M for missile development program

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi stated about Tehran's plans to spend about $300 million to strengthen its missile program, Mehr news agency reported.

The goal of such a step is the opposition of Tehran to Washington, which supports terrorist groups, according to the MP.

He said that considering the fact that the U.S. and its allies in the region support groups like the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, one main axis of the retaliatory plan is serious support of the country’s missile program as the only means of countering threats from the enemies.

 “As such, approximately 300 million dollars have been allocated to promote Iran’s missile program while a similar amount has been assigned to support Qods Force of IRGC, in the absence of whom, terrorists would be ruling in Damascus and Baghdad.”

The senior MP clarified that the envisaged amounts have been specifically assigned to confront recent actions of the U.S. and will add up to the figures defined the Sixth National Development Plan.

In May, the U.S. Department of State announced that it would impose sanctions on Iranian defense officials over the United States’ concern with "Iran’s continued development of ballistic missiles, which is inconsistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231."

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on imposing sanctions on Iran over its missile program on June 15.

The previous round of sanctions against the Iranian ballistic missile program was imposed by the United States in early February, targeting 13 people and 12 companies, including groups in China, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

The wider economic and financial sanctions imposed on Iran due to its activities in the nuclear field were lifted by the United States in January 2016 after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) came into force. 

Iran, five permanent UN Security Council members, Germany and the European Union signed the JCPOA in July 2015 to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. Then, the Islamic republic pledged to refrain from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed against Iran.