Missing From the Iran Deal: Ballistic Missiles

(CNSNews) – The framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program announced in Switzerland on Thursday has no direct reference to reining in Tehran’s ballistic missile activities, despite international concerns that the Iranians in past years carried out work relating to developing a nuclear payload for a missile.

From the outset of the marathon nuclear talks, Iran refused to discuss its missile program, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ridiculing Western attempts to include it on the agenda as “stupid and idiotic.”

Thursday’s joint statement by Iran and the P5+1 world powers, represented by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union (E.U.) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini respectively, was silent on the subject.

By contrast a State Department fact sheet on the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA) – whose final text, based on the framework announced Thursday, is meant to be nailed down by the end of June – does refer to the missile issue.

The fact sheet of “key parameters” says that the JCPOA will be endorsed in a new U.N. Security Council resolution which will also incorporate “[i]mportant restrictions on conventional arms and ballistic missiles.”

Whether Iran reads the framework understanding the same way remains to be seen, but Zarif has already described the fact sheet as a U.S. government attempt to “spin” the agreement.

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