TEHRAN – The Russian Ambassador to Tehran has rejected the claim that Iran’s missile tests were not consistent with the spirit of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.

In an interview posted on the English service of IRNA on Tuesday, Levan Jagarian said Iran’s missile tests were not against the JCPOA as the missiles which were tested were not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Jagarian also said Resolution 2231 has never banned such missile tests.

‘See how American police killing black people’

The ambassador also criticized Washington’s claims of human rights, saying the United States itself faces the harshest criticism by other countries for its human rights record.

Jagarian pointed to the issues surrounding the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the human rights breaches in Iraqi prisons while under the U.S. occupation, and killing of defenseless people in Afghanistan as instances of human rights violations by the U.S.

He added, “Let’s look what is happening in the U.S. and see how the American police are killing black people, which is a vivid case of human rights violation.”

 ‘Iran-Russia ties growing’

Jagarian also said Iran-Russia relations are growing and leaders of the two countries have been successfully seeking to advance cooperation in areas of politics, economics, culture, commerce and tourism.

According to the ambassador, Iran and Russia have already signed a document on facilitating visa services for businessmen and students.

‘Iranian media should make distinction between JCPOA violators’

The top Russian diplomat to Iran also said the Iranian media outlets should distinguish between those countries which have proved faithful to their commitments to the nuclear deal when talking about the “failure of other parties in fulfilling their commitments”.

Russia was a member of the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) which struck the nuclear deal with Iran in July last year. The agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) went into force early this year.

Russia and China played key roles in bridging the differences between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Ambassador said the media have to particularly name those 5+1 states which have failed to honor their commitments based on the JCPOA.

He said his country is aware of Iran’s dissatisfaction with the implementation process of the JCPOA which is mainly due to refusal of big world banks to do transactions with Iran.

The other parties were expected to comply with their commitments but regretfully they have refused to do so, the ambassador noted.

Jagarian said Moscow has always told Americans that like Iran they also must live up to their commitments under the JCPOA.

PA/PA