Iran slams U.S., France for voicing concern over new ballistic missile

TEHRAN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday censured the U.S. and French governments, which he described as two major arms exporters to the Middle East, for expressing concern over Iran's test-launch of a new ballistic missile.

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks on his Twitter page in response to the worries voiced by the U.S. State Department and French Foreign Ministry about Iran's successful test-launch of the latest domestically-developed ballistic missile on Thursday.

He said the U.S. and French governments are expressing concern about Iran's "defense" advances and power while they played an important role in "provoking and arming the Baath Party of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in its military aggression against Iran and bombardment of the country's cities and defenseless people" during the Iraq-Iran war, which lasted from 1980-88.

Kanaani stressed that the United States and France are also atop the list of arms exporters to the region, adding they are opposed to a "powerful Iran."

Iran on Thursday unveiled and test-launched its latest domestically-developed ballistic missile, known as Kheibar, with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a warhead capacity of 1,500 kilograms, according to the official news agency IRNA.

The U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing later on Thursday that "Iran's development and proliferation of ballistic missiles pose a serious threat to regional and international security and remains a significant nonproliferation challenge."

On the same day, French Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre accused Iran of "violating the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 of 2015 which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program by unveiling the ballistic missile."

She said these activities are worrying in the context of the continuing escalation of Iran's nuclear program.