The long-standing trend of Iran doing virtually anything, and the US accusing them of major violations of UN resolutions, continues over the weekend. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed Iran to have tested a missile “designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”
US allegations of UNSC resolution 2231 are trivially common, and anything even remotely missile related is presented by US officials as a violation on the grounds it could someday be used in a missile. This test-fire involved an actual missile, though presenting it as designed for nuclear weapons is misleading, since Iran has no nuclear weapons program, nor any such warheads.
Iranian officials say that the missile is purely defensive in nature, and the design is meant to add to Iran’s deterrence. Since this comes just days after the US State Department threatened to attack Iran, it is perhaps unsurprising they would want to shore up their defensive position.
John Bolton further accused the Iran test of violating the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. This isn’t true, because Iran isn’t a nuclear power, nor was Iran ever a party to the INF treaty. It is also worth noting that the US has withdrawn from INF.
I guess to Bolton, Iran being allied with Russia equates to Russia actually doing whatever Iran does.