S/2017/123 - Letter from Israel condemning the ballistic missile test conducted by Iran on 29Jan17.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2017/123

Distr.: General
10 February 2017
Original: English

Identical letters dated 10 February 2017 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

I am writing to express the strong condemnation of Israel of the ballistic missile test conducted by Iran on 29 January 2017.

Iran fired the Khorramshahr medium-range missile, which travelled a distance of 1,000 kilometres. This is a Missile Technology Control Regime category one ballistic missile, capable of delivering a nuclear payload of 500 kilograms for a range of over 300 kilometres. The test was confirmed by Iranian Defense Minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, who had stated, in September 2016, that Iran would start production of this missile.

The range of this missile covers all of Israel and is able to reach other States in the region. This poses a grave danger to the national security of Israel and to the region at large. In a direct threat towards Israel, a senior member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Mojtaba Zonour, said recently, on 4 February, that only seven minutes were needed for the Iranian missile to hit Tel Aviv.

The test firing of this ballistic missile constitutes yet another flagrant violation of Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), in which the Council endorsed the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1. The resolution intended to restrict Iran from launching missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons -- the very same missile that Iran test-fired on 29 January. The development of surface-to-surface missiles with nuclear warhead capability reveals the true intentions of Iran not to comply with resolution 2231 (2015).

The Khorramshahr missile originates, even according to open sources, from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). In the last year, DPRK has conducted several tests of the same kind of missile. This serves as additional proof of the cooperation between Iran and DPRK on the development and transfer of surface-to-surface missile technologies and of the violation by Iran of Security Council resolutions relating to DPRK.

Iran does not only pose a danger to Israel from afar, but it also uses proxies to threaten Israel directly within and along our borders. On 24 June 2016, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, stated in a televised address that Hezbollah receives all its weapons and missiles from the Islamic Republic of Iran. This constitutes a further example of blatant disregard by Iran of Security Council resolutions 2231 (2015) and 1701 (2006).

The previous Secretary-General, in his report of 30 December 2016 on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), noted that any Iranian arms transfer to Hezbollah would have been undertaken contrary to the provisions of annex B to resolution 2231 (2015) should they have taken place after 16 January 2016 (see S/2016/1136, para. 8).

Iran continues to ignore its obligations to the international community and to develop its aggressive capabilities which pose a threat to Israel and to the whole region.

The ballistic missile programme of Iran must be stopped. I call upon the Security Council to respond firmly and decisively to these Iranian violations and provocations.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter distributed as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Danny Danon
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

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10Feb17

Letter from Israel condemning the ballistic missile test conducted by Iran on 29Jan17