Iran’s Says It Needs A Sample Of Missile Displayed By U.S. ‘For Investigation’

Yamanyoon- Dec 18, 2017

Islamic Republic’s Defense Minister has said that Iran wants to obtain a piece of the missile fired at Riyadh airport by Yemen’s Huthi rebels, to do its own forensic investigation.

At a December 14 news conference held at a Washington-area military warehouse where U.S. defense officials put weapons fragments on display, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, displayed fragments of what U.S. officials said was an Iranian-made ballistic missile that was fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen in early November.

Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif later rejected Haley’s claims and said that his country will complain to the U.N. Security Council. He dismissed the fragments displayed by the U.S., calling it “a piece of metal”.

Now defense minister, Amir Hatami says that his ministry’s technical division is looking into Haley’s claims.

He told the Iranian parliament’s news service that the technical review is necessary for submitting a complaint to the U.N. and for this purpose, Iran needs a sample of the missile fragment to complete its investigation.

The U.N. has said that its own investigation about the origin of missiles fired at Saudi Arabia remained inconclusive. It only confirmed that the missile had a “common origin” to some Iranian designs.

Yemen has become a battleground of Saudi and Iranian proxy forces.

On several occasions Huthis have fired missile at Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh and Washington say were made in Iran.

Tehran denies this accusation, saying that Yemen had an arsenal of ballistic missile before the civil war broke out and local forces might be capable of manufacturing their own weapons.