Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami says Iranian Armed Forces carry out their activities, including missile tests, according to plan and “on a regular basis.”
“These activities are normal work all over the world,” Hatami said on Wednesday, referring to the activities of the Armed Forces.
“If certain parties do some kind of media maneuver [to portray things otherwise], it is because they are pursuing specific objectives of their own. Our Armed Forces, though, carry out their activities, including missile tests, entirely regularly,” the Iranian defense minister said.
He said research work was being planned and executed regularly as well.
Some parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have attempted to include Iran’s missile program in multilateral talks with Tehran in what they say could be a potential expansion of regular negotiations over the Iran deal.
Tehran has said its missile program is non-negotiable.
On Friday, CNN said Iran had test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile.
It said the missile was “a Shabaab-3” and that the test was “part of Iran’s efforts to improve the range and accuracy [of the weapon].”
Iran neither denied nor confirmed the test.
The Iranian defense minister also spoke about reports pointing to potential joint military exercises between Iran and Russia.
“Nothing has been arranged in this regard yet, but Russia is our friend,” he said briefly.
Source: Press TV
