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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Army Criticises Rouhani's Missile Comments
2017-05-07
[An Nahar] Iran's armed forces warned President Hassan Rouhani against discussing the country's defense program after he criticized the anti-Israel slogans written on the side of ballistic missiles, local media reported on Saturday.

During an election debate on Friday, Rouhani took the rare step of criticising the elite Revolutionary Guards for the provocative messages they wrote on ballistic missiles before testing them.

"We saw how they wrote slogans on missiles and showed underground (missile) cities to disrupt the JCPOA (nuclear deal)," he said during the debate, which comes ahead of the May 19 election.

Armed Forces front man General Masoud Jazayeri responded that the missile programme had "no connection" to the nuclear deal.

"We again stress and recommend the presidential candidates to avoid controversial entries into important and sensitive military and defence issues of the country and giving false information to people," said Jazayeri, according to the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

"The existence of underground missile sites are an important deterrent factor against the sworn enemies of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran and the nation," Jazayeri added.

Iran says its ballistic missile tests are part of its legitimate defence programme and are not a violation of the 2015 deal, under which it agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for an end to certain sanctions.

Posted by:Fred

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