Roundup: Iran's IRGC tests two ballistic missiles in defiance to U.S. threats

Defiant to the U.S. threats over the development of ballistic missiles by Iran, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday "successfully" test-fired two ballistic missiles in ongoing military drills across the country.

The missiles Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired from East Alborz heights in northern Iran and could hit the targets in Makran Coasts southeast of the country, the report said.

Qadr-H missile has a range of 1,700 km while Qadr-F missile can destroy targets some 2,000 km away, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Amirali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, Iran fired several ballistic missiles as the IRGC started the large-scale missile drills in different parts of the country.

In the day, the United States said that although Iran's recent ballistic missile tests did not violate an international agreement over Tehran's nuclear agreement, the issue could be the source of concern for the West and it might be raised at the UN Security Council.

The White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that if it was determined that Iran ballistic missiles tests were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Tehran could face "some consequences."

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1929, Iran is prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

An experts' report by the United Nations said in December that Iran violated the UN Security Council Resolution 1929 by test-firing the Emad missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

In October, Iran announced it "successfully" test-fired the country's first long-range missile of Emad which could be guided and controlled until hitting the target with high precision.

The UN report said the Emad ballistic missile has a range of "no less than 1,000 km with a payload of at least 1,000 kg."

Iran has said that the Emad missile is "totally conventional."

On Wednesday, Hajizadeh said that "the more the enemies threaten us by imposing sanctions, the more willful the revolutionary and IRGC forces will become in enhancing the might of the country," according to IRGC website.

"Following the implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (as the nuclear deal performance mechanism), the enemies have started to target our security," he said, adding that they have put forward the idea of imposing missile-related sanctions against the country, but the Iranian armed forces and the IRGC are resolute in defending the country as they have done it over the past decades following the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

With an allusion to the test of two missiles, he said that all the equipment and the launchers were made by Iranians and the IRGC forces conducted all the process of the drills themselves.

Also, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Hossein Salami on Wednesday ruled out the U.S. threats over Iran's missile program, saying that that anti-Iran sanctions in the past helped the country develop its missile power.

"The missiles test-fired today are the outcome of (the past) sanctions," Salami said, reiterating that "the country's missile development was made possible through the anti-Iran sanctions," according to Tasnim news agency.

He further referred to the missile capabilities of Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, saying "When Hezbollah has stockpiled more than 100,000 missiles, (obviously) the Islamic republic possesses tens of times more missiles in various classes."

Salami stressed that the country's missile development is not stoppable and "We will transfer all our experiences and achievements to our brothers in the Muslim world and the resistance front against the United States, Israel, and their regional allies."

Also, the chief commander of IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Tuesday that Iran's ongoing missile drills were "firm responses to the nonsense babbled by the enemies about (possible) missile-related sanctions" against Iran.

"Firing of the missiles is an embodiment of the ready-to-operate status of Iran's missile depots in every part of the country," Jafari was quoted as saying by IRGC's website.

"The drills also unfold this point to the enemies that the deterrent power and the national security of Iran is our red-line and we are not ready to negotiate over it with anybody," he said.

"Today, almost 100 percent of our (missile) products have been indigenized and we are independent," he said, adding that the western sanctions on Iran in the past years only resulted in the development and independency of the country in the field.

Jafari said the message of missile drills of Iran is "security" for the regional states and the security of Iran is tied with that of its neighbors.

However, the enemies of the Islamic republic should be frightened of the "roar" of Iran's missiles, he said, maintaining that "the range of most of our missiles could reach the Zionist regime" of Israel.

The Islamic republic is believed to have the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East and has developed a 2,000-km missile. Endit