Iran’s military conducted its first ballistic missile test of 2018 late last week, a move seen as a show of defiance toward the Trump administration, according to U.S. officials.
Three officials told Fox News that the launch, which occurred alongside a public military demonstration by Iran’s forces but has not been officially acknowledged, was picked up by U.S. spy satellites and demonstrated Iran’s short-range ballistic missile capabilities.
The launch is Iran’s first since March 2017 and comes after President Trump’s announcement in May that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Obama-era nuclear agreement signed by Iran and other countries, including several U.S. allies in Europe.
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A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment to Fox News regarding last week’s launch, but the top U.S. commander for the Middle East told reporters this week that Iran’s public military exercises were meant to “send a message” to the U.S.
“I think it’s pretty clear to us that they were trying to use that exercise to send a message to us that as we approach this period of the sanctions, they had some capabilities,” Gen. Joseph Votel said Wednesday at a press conference.
Last week’s launch flies in the face of a 2015 U.N. resolution calling on Iran to not “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” That resolution came days after the historic signing of the nuclear agreement, which European countries have tried to salvage in the months following Trump’s withdrawal.
Trump issued a warning to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani last month following remarks made by the Iranian leader.
“Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!” Trump wrote in an all-caps tweet directed at Rouhani.