On Friday, the Trump Administration imposed new sanctions on Iran, having put the Islamic Republic on notice earlier in the week over its illegal ballistic missiles program. In response, Fars reported, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it plans to deploy even more missiles.
“If the enemy makes a mistake our roaring missiles will hit their targets,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh on Saturday told reporters on the sidelines of massive military drills dubbed “Defenders of the Velayat Skies” in Semnan province in Northern Iran.
General Hajizadeh ridiculed President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn’s remarks, which put Iran “on notice” about its ballistic missile tests, and said Washington officials are only after “a pretext to show their animosity towards us; we are making round-the-clock efforts to defend our country’s security and if the enemy dares to make any mistake our roaring missiles will land on them.”
Flynn said Iran’s launch had been “provocative” and in defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution barring Iran from developing a ballistic missile program capable of launching nuclear weapons.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, President Trump said about the Iranians: “They’re not behaving.”
Referring to the massive military drills in Semnan province, Hajizadeh said, “The main phase of the military drills of the aerospace air defense command started today after its successful accomplishment in the preliminary phase.”
The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and companies connected to Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as those supporting the IRGC’s Qods Force. The sanctions came in retaliation for Iran’s test launch of a ballistic missile a week ago.