More sneering, taunting propaganda from Iran today as state television showed scenes of another underground storage facility holding dozens of Emad ICBMs.
Iran unveiled a new underground missile depot on Tuesday with state television showing Emad precision-guided missiles in store which the United States says can take a nuclear warhead and violate a 2010 U.N. Security Council resolution.
The defiant move to publicize Iran’s missile program seemed certain to irk the United States as it plans to dismantle nearly all sanctions on Iran under a breakthrough nuclear agreement.
Tasnim news agency and state television video said the underground facility, situated in mountains and run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was inaugurated by the speaker of parliament, Ali Larijani. Release of one-minute video followed footage of another underground missile depot last October.
The United States says the Emad, which Iran tested in October, would be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and U.S. officials say Washington will respond to the Emad tests with fresh sanctions against Iranian individuals and businesses linked to the program.
Iran’s boasting about its missile capabilities are a challenge for U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration as the United States and European Union plan to dismantle nearly all international sanctions against Tehran under the nuclear deal reached in July.
Iran has abided by the main terms of the nuclear deal, which require it to give up material that world powers feared could be used to make an atomic weapon and accept other restrictions on its nuclear program.
But President Hassan Rouhani ordered his defense minister last week to expand the missile program.
The Iranian missiles under development boast much improved accuracy over the current generation, which experts say is likely to improve their effectiveness with conventional warheads.
Obama must be used to being humiliated. Of course, he invited this latest slap in the face by his incredible back-down on sanctions over the illegal missile program.
The Obama administration has demonstrated a willingness to countenance all sorts of illegal conduct by Iran in the name of maintaining its terrible nuclear agreement. The mullahs in Tehran are fully aware of this dynamic and are routinely probing the extent of their potent leverage. By threatening to destroy Obama’s geopolitical legacy project, the Iranians have discovered that they can extract even more concessions from the United States — as they recently did in response to Congress’ visa new waiver law. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are slamming this latest capitulation, which the White House murkily insists may only be temporary.
The Iranians have read Obama like a book. They know what buttons to press to wring concessions out of him. And he is apparently beyond shame. He just meekly bows and asks politely if there’s anything else the Iranians need.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Barack Obama adheres to a worldview that allows for the thesis that no humiliation is big enough for America given how evil we’ve been over the years. He and most of his advisors believe we deserve it. He has groveled before tinhorn tyrants and murderous thugs alike, and he’s just getting warmed up.
He will visit Castro’s Cuba later this year.
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