The United States will seek “appropriate action” in the U.N. Security Council “in the coming days” against Iran for its launching of a ballistic missile earlier this week.
“We have looked into the facts and it now does appear that the missile launch that Iran conducted did violate U.N. Security Council resolutions,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told VOA on Friday. “So we will indeed bring it to the U.N. Security Council and press for the appropriate action, and we are also looking bilaterally at things we can do as well.”
On Wednesday, Power said that Washington was looking into the possibility that Iran had violated council resolutions with the launch.
WATCH: VOA's interview with U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power
She said confirmation of the October 10 launch of a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear war head was a “clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1929,” adopted five years ago, which prohibits such actions.
Power said the United States is preparing a report on the incident to present the Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee and would also directly raise the matter directly with Security Council members.
“The Security Council prohibition on Iran's ballistic missile activities, as well as the arms embargo remain in place, and we will continue to press the Security Council for an appropriate response to Iran’s disregard for its international obligations,” she said.
She told VOA that the violation was unlikely to affect implementation of the July nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and the six major powers.
“We are getting close to the beginning of the Implementation period, and I think that will go forward. It is in everyone’s interests to see the dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible,” she said. “But we have got to do both at once – we have to hold Iran accountable for its violations of U.N. Security
Council resolutions and we have to move forward and ensure that it does not pose a threat and does not obtain a nuclear weapon.”
