Iran Emphasizes Launch of Two Satellites Despite Opposition from France and the US

Despite objections from the United States and France regarding the Islamic Republic's plan to launch two satellites using domestically made rockets, the President and the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry emphasized that these two satellites will be launched into space in the coming days. According to the IRNA news agency, Hassan Rouhani stated on Monday, January 14, that Iran will launch two satellites into space soon. He mentioned that the 'Payam' satellite, Iran's first operational satellite, will soon be placed in an orbit 600 kilometers above the Earth and will send information about weather, agriculture, groundwater, and forests. He added, 'We are not afraid of the enemies' conspiracies and will overcome the problems; the great nation and brave leadership cannot be brought to their knees by the US and its allies.' On Thursday, January 10, Rouhani had announced that Iran would send two satellites into space in the coming weeks using its own rockets. A day after these remarks, the spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry called on Iran to immediately halt all activities related to its ballistic missile program capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Robert Palladino, the Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department, praised what he described as a 'strong statement' from France on Twitter. On the same day, Bahram Qasemi, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, referred to his French counterpart's statements as 'repeating the false claims of the opponents of the JCPOA.' Qasemi also described the comments from the foreign ministers of France and the US regarding Iran's missile activities as 'fallacious and inappropriate' and emphasized that this discussion does not contradict UN resolutions, particularly Resolution 2231. Previously, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, had warned Iran to abandon its ballistic and space launch program. On December 1 of this year, the US Secretary of State revealed for the first time that Iran had tested a medium-range missile, which he deemed a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. The 'Payam' satellite is a remote sensing satellite made by Amir Kabir University, which has always been planned to be launched alongside the communication satellite 'Nahid 1' by the 'Simorgh' rocket to an altitude of about 550 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Iran's satellite launches have faced years of delays, with the Minister of Communications stating that the 14-year delay in launching the 'Misbah' satellite has rendered it obsolete and its useful life expired. Two years ago, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused the eleventh government of keeping a 'ready-to-fly satellite launch vehicle' in storage out of 'fear' of the US. Hajizadeh deemed such an action 'humiliating.' UN Security Council Resolution 2231, issued after the 2015 Vienna nuclear agreement, called on Iran to refrain from developing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. However, Iran has stated that its manufactured missiles are not capable of carrying nuclear weapons and thus its missile activities do not violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231.