UN Security Council to meet over Iran missile test

The United Nations Security Council plans to meet Tuesday to discuss Iran’s recent missile test, which U.S. officials say was  conducted in “defiance” of a U.N. resolution restricting the country’s missile program.

France and the U.K. over the weekend requested a U.N. Security Council meeting after Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile, which can reportedly reach Europe and anywhere in the Middle East.

{mosads}”Iran’s recent ballistic missile test was dangerous and concerning, but not surprising,” outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement Tuesday.

“If the Security Council is serious about holding Iran accountable and enforcing our resolutions, then at a minimum we should be able to deliver a unanimous condemnation of this provocative missile test,” Haley added.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday condemned the missile test, calling it a violation of U.N. resolution 2231. The resolution endorses the 2015 multination nuclear deal with Tehran and bans Iran from working on technology to create ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons.

“We are accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to restore deterrence,” Pompeo said in the statement.

White House national security adviser John Bolton also said Saturday that Iran’s behavior would not “be tolerated.”

Iran has maintained that the test was purely defensive.

A high-ranking Iranian military official on Tuesday said that Tehran will continue to expand the range of its missile program, according to Reuters.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have intensified under the Trump administration following Trump’s decision to leave the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. 

The Obama-era deal rolled back sanctions against Tehran in exchange for a reduction in the country’s nuclear abilities. Pompeo has been working to convince Germany, France and the U.K. to follow the U.S.’s lead in leaving the deal.

The U.S. last month finished reimposing the sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 deal, ramping up financial pressure against the government there.