Iran Unveils New Missile Depot – Is The Country Attempting To Sabotage The Nuclear Deal?

When Iran unveils a new missile depot mere weeks after the U.S. ended decades-long sanctions against the country, it puts the Obama administration in a very awkward situation.

Even as Barack’s Obama’s government is trying to dismantle nearly all sanctions on Iran under a breakthrough nuclear agreement, the country unveiled yet another missile depot. Iran had the added audacity of claiming its numerous bunkers are currently choc-a-block with advanced, precision-guided rockets. U.S. officials are concerned that the missiles highlighted in the short video can be fitted with nuclear warheads, which directly violates a 2010 U.N. Security Council resolution.

In a very public move that is bound to humiliate the United States, Iran boldly unveiled an underground missile depot seemingly stocked full of Emad ballistic missiles. The country even added that their missile silos are so full that they have no more room left for missiles that have been recently produced. The Emad missiles are medium to long-range rockets that the country boasts are equipped with precision guidance systems. While the country has proclaimed that it hasn’t violated any of the United Nations (UN) resolutions, the Emad missiles can, in fact, be tweaked to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The country will never reveal the actual location of the missile depot, which Iran insists are many in number and scattered throughout the country. However, the state-run media that aired the footage of the new missile depot stated that the underground facility is located in the mountains and run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Extolling the military might of the country, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards’ second-in-command, said, “Iran’s depots and underground facilities are so full that they do not know how to store their new missiles.”

Incidentally, Iran has upped its public demonstrations of power following talks about ending the decades-long crippling sanctions against the country. Iran had recently aired similar footage of a missile depot. The brief video had showed a bunker that was filled with rows upon rows of short-range missiles. The bunker, built inside a hollowed-out mountain, featured passageways that made the huge trucks look like miniature commuter vehicles. Thereafter, the country conducted numerous missile tests, including one that was uncomfortably close to U.S. destroyer USS Harry S. Truman.

The Obama administration has already said it is “considering “sanctions on individuals and businesses involved in producing the missiles due to recent missile tests,” reported People’s Pundit Daily. What’s more concerning is the fact that, according to NYSE Post, United Nations experts have concluded Tehran violated a UN Security Council resolution that specifically prohibited Tehran from launching ballistic missiles. Iran had tested an Emad rocket back in October, reported International Business Times. On the U.S.’ insistence that Iran shouldn’t have conducted the missile test, the UN had begun an investigation, which concluded that a violation did take place.

It’s no secret that Iran’s boasting about its missile capabilities is an open and rather awkward challenge for U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration. The United States and European Union plan to dismantle nearly all international sanctions against Tehran under the nuclear deal reached in July, reported Reuters.

Iran has seemingly followed the conditions in the nuclear deal by giving up material that world powers have always feared could be readily used to make an atomic weapon. Additionally, the country has accepted other restrictions on its nuclear program. However, there’s a time period allowed by the nuclear agreement that might be used by Iran to build nuclear weapons. Such missile depots are part of a strategy with which the country insists on proving its military might. In fact, reports indicate President Hassan Rouhani had ordered his defense minister last week to expand the missile program.

Even with conventional warheads, the current missiles in development can prove very powerful due to improved accuracy. The unveiling of the new missile depot raises the question: Is the nuclear deal or UN resolution not having the desired effect on Iran?

[Photo by Video Screen Grab]