Context:

• Iran on Tuesday confirmed it had conducted a missile test earlier in December, following criticism from Western powers, including Security Council members the US, France and Britain.

Details:

Arguments by Western powers:

• Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrined the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran is “called upon” to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.

Arguments by Iran:

• The test was for the defense of the country and hence it does not require any permission from foreign countries.
• Moreover, the issue of missiles has never been subject to negotiations and nothing has been approved or ratified about its prohibition for the Islamic Republic of Iran in (UN) resolution 2231.
• The resolution does not specifically bar Tehran from missile launches.
• In May, US President President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
• Trump said the deal was flawed because it did not include curbs on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

Background:

• About Nuclear deal/Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and US withdrawal. US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that he will pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, a 2015 agreement that capped over a decade of hostility between Tehran and the West over its atomic program.
• It was signed between Iran and the P5 (five permanent members of the UNSC- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US) plus Germany and the EU. The deal made an agreement to limit Iranian nuclear programs in return for relief from the US and other economic sanctions.
• The US has pulled out of the deal citing Iran’s incompliance with the deal, though it did not provide any evidence.

About Ballistic missile:

• A ballistic missile follows a ballistic trajectory to deliver one or more warheads on a predetermined target.
• These weapons are only guided during relatively brief periods of flight—most of their trajectory is unpowered, being governed by gravity and air resistance if in the atmosphere.
• Shorter range ballistic missiles stay within the Earth’s atmosphere, while longer-ranged intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), are launched on a sub-orbital flight trajectory and spend most of their flight out of the atmosphere.
• These weapons are in a distinct category from cruise missiles, which are aerodynamically guided in powered flight.
• “Ballistic” describes the curved flight path of any object that is not self-propelled. A rock thrown into the air takes a ballistic trajectory after it leaves your hand.
• When applied to missiles, “ballistic” refers to the trajectory the missile takes after its rocket engines finish “boosting it,” or firing – analogous to a rock, after your hand stops “boosting it” into the air.