Israeli arms control expert: Iranian long-range missile test is challenge to US
The recent announcement of the successful test-firing of a new long-range Iranian missile represents a challenge to the US by the Islamic Republic, which has found Washington willing to “bend over backwards” to justify Tehran’s loose interpretation of restrictions on its nuclear program, a senior Israeli arms control expert warns.
Dr. Emily Landau, head of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, spoke out on Wednesday after Iran tested its Imad surface-to-surface missile, which has a reported range of 1,700 kilometers, a warhead weighing 750 kilograms, and an accuracy range of 500 meters.
On Sunday, Iran announced the successful test of the domestically made Imad missile.
“This is Iran’s first long-range missile that can be guided and controlled until hitting the target,” Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying, according to an AFP report.
Landau said the Imad “is a leap in terms of its precision, and it is capable of carrying a nuclear payload.
“Iran is testing the waters in order to establish and ensure rules of the game for its future activities – like inspections at its military facilities, and its presence in Syria,” she said. It has found a compliant US, willing to accept its interpretations, she argued.
“The Imad missile test has immediate and very significant implications, as a test case for implementation of the recently concluded Iran nuclear deal,” Landau said. “It goes directly to problematic ambiguity and confusion that has been built into the nuclear deal.”