Defying Trump, Iran says will boost missile capabilities

LONDON: Iran will strengthen its missile  capabilities and not seek any country´s permission, President  Hassan Rouhani said on Friday rejecting demands from US   President Donald Trump. 

Rouhani spoke at a military parade where an Iranian news  agency said one of the weapons on display was a new ballistic  missile with range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), capable of  carrying several warheads.

The Tasnim news agency, which quoted the head of the  Revolutionary Guards´ aerospace division, Amirali Hajizadeh,  gave few other details of the missile.

Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of  "Khoramshahr missile" but did not specify if the test-fire  happened on Friday or in the past.

At the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said Iran was  building its missile capability and accused it exporting  violence to Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

He also criticised the 2015 pact that the United States and  six other powers struck with Iran under which Tehran agreed to  restrict its nuclear programme in return for relief from  economic sanctions.

In a speech broadcast on state television, Rouhani said: "We  will increase our military power as a deterrent.  We will  strengthen our missile capabilities .  .  .  We will not seek  permission from anyone to defend our country".

"All countries in the world supported the nuclear deal in  the United Nations General Assembly this year .  .  .  except the  United States and the Zionist regime (Israel)," Rouhani said. 

US  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the  agreement must be changed or the United States could not stick  with it.  Iran has said its nuclear accord cannot be  renegotiated.  The prospect of Washington reneging on the deal has worried  some of the US  allies that helped negotiate it, especially as  the world grapples with North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic  missile development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said tensions on the Korean  peninsula underlined the importance of the Iranian deal, and  that China would continue to support it.

Trump put Iran "on notice" in February for test-firing a  ballistic missile and imposed new economic sanctions in July  over its missile programme and "malign activities" in the Middle  East.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that  the US imposition of unilateral sanctions on Iran was  "illegitimate and undermines the collective nature of  international efforts."