Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has responded to the latest Iranian ballistic missile test by warning of the day when a similar missile can carry a nuclear warhead.
“Imagine what would happen if Iran would obtain nuclear weapons, something which it strives to do. We must not allow this to happen,” said Liberman.
Iran showed images of a missile test, claiming it has a range of 2,000 kilometers and can carry a payload of multiple warheads, up to 1,800 kilograms.
The Tasnim news agency close to Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has labelled the missile "Israel's nightmare".
President Donald Trump and the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have also condemned Iran’s action.
Liberman on September 23 accused Iran of direct provocation and a potential threat to the “free world”.
“This Iranian missile launch is an act of provocation and defiance against the United States and its allies, as well as an attempt to test them,” Liberman said, adding that it “is also further proof of Iranian aspirations to become a world power that threatens not only the Middle East, but all the countries of the free world.”
President Trump, who has repeatedly questioned the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, is said to be in a decision making process that would determine what the U.S. will ultimately do with the agreement.
In the past few months, the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress have pointed to Iran’s ballistic missile program as a provocative and destabilizing factor, which casts doubt on Iran’s intentions and future behavior.
Iran maintains that its missile program has nothing to do with the nuclear deal. However, at the conclusion of negotiations of the nuclear agreement, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution urging Iran to curtail its ballistic missile program.
The UN Security Council’s resolution 2231 which after the 2015 nuclear deal replaced previous UNSC’s sanctions, calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”