Free Republic

Iran said Saturday it will continue its ballistic missile program, after the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that the missile tests aren’t in the spirit of the country’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers. “Iran will strongly continue its missile program based on its own defense and national security calculations,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said in comments published on the ministry’s website. Iran’s missile program is not linked to the nuclear deal and does not conflict with the U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement, he said. “Iran’s missile program has aimed at defense and it is not designed...

Iran will continue to develop its missile program and it should not be considered a threat to neighboring and friendly countries, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the head of the army as saying on Thursday. Under a deal reached between Iran and six major powers in 2015, most international sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program were lifted last month. However, sanctions imposed on its missile program were not lifted. According to a July 20 United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the deal, Iran is still "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to...

UNITED NATIONS -- In a wide-ranging compendium on Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programs, the U.N. Monitoring, Observation, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) reveals that in late 1989, Saddam's military launched a modified Scud missile that could have carried a nuclear warhead. In a document released on Thursday, UNMOVIC states . . . Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, repeatedly waved off Western concerns about the missile program. Now, it has become clear that such concerns were justified . . .

An Iraqi defector has given Pentagon officials a detailed inside look at Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's biological and chemical weapons programs — and told of buying nuclear materials with a briefcase full of $100 bills. The defector, whose story is recounted in the new edition of Vanity Fair magazine, says he was involved in the most sensitive of Iraq's secret arms programs before fleeing a year and a half ago. Presented to U.S. officials by the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based exile group pushing for an American attack on Iraq, the defector says Saddam is close to finishing a...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has approved a program to support a United Arab Emirates's missile program. The Defense Department has awarded Raytheon Peninsula Systems a $5 million contract for technical assistance to support the UAE's Honing All the Way Missile System Program. The program is one of several UAE missile programs being supported by the Pentagon. In October 2002, the UAE Air Force signed an agreement for the procurement of Raytheon's AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. These missiles were meant to equip the new F-16 fleet of the UAE. Officials said the latest Pentagon award will be conducted at...