That’s an excellent question, one that many people may be asking right about now.
Word on the tweet is that the Ayatollah Khameini is going all LBJ and picking targets at U.S. positions in Iraq in 2020 with his missiles.
We’re told the Supreme Leader is commanding the targeting of the missiles.
https://twitter.com/Khaaasteh/status/1214705191511085056
But it turns out that photo is from 2014.
This photo was taken during 2014 IRGC Aerospace Force exhibition not today.
— MxPerception (@mxperception) January 8, 2020
It’s fake news that the Supreme Leader is targeting those missiles.
Fake. https://t.co/GUURXFGwEe@ArianeTabatabai
— Julie (@nihonmama) January 8, 2020
But people are asking if Obama’s vaunted Iran deal foreclosed using those ballistic missiles at all.
In fact, the Obama administration’s Iran deal, the JCPOA – worst acronym ever – did not cover ballistic missiles. It referred to nuclear weapons.
In other words, the deal covered weapons that the Ayatollah was least likely to use, but didn’t cover the ones he could readily use.
In fact, the Washington Post’s, ahem, ‘”fact-checkers” once upbraided Republican Senator Johnny Isakson for being wrong about Iran being allowed to use ballistic missiles.
The WaPo sniffed, “The formal name for the deal reached in July between Iran and world powers, including the United States, is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly called the Iran deal. The nuclear agreement was officially implemented this January, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certified that Iran had complied with all the nuclear-related measures it agreed to in July. Yet Iran has continued to test ballistic missiles and said it will not stop.”
They gave the senator three out of four Pinocchios because, by using ballistic weapons, Iran only broke United Nations Resolution 2231:
After the deal was reached, the United Nations Security Council — which had imposed sanctions on Iran to pressure it to negotiate — adopted Resolution 2231. The resolution endorsed the deal and outlined conditions under which sanctions are to be lifted. Under the resolution, ballistic missile restrictions expire after eight years.
So, Iran is under UN sanctions forbidding its use of ballistic missiles, according to the Post. But there’s wiggle room:
…the U.N. resolution does contain restrictions relating to ballistic missiles. So how is Iran able to continue its testing? Experts say the resolution’s language allows Iran to argue that its ballistic missiles do not fit within the restrictions laid out in Resolution 2231.
So, no, once again, Obama’s deal to end all deals does not include these ballistic missiles.
But take heart.
Security Studies Group president and former Army Special Operator Jim Hanson told Laura Ingraham on Fox News Tuesday night that these particular missiles “suck. They don’t know where they’re going to land. They [Iran] took the least likely path to kill Americans. But they did it because it sounds like they’re tough guys.”
So far there have been no reported U.S. casualties.
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