TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iranian state television reported on Sunday that Tehran had fired a solid-fuel rocket into space, provoking reprimands from Washington ahead of the expected resumption of stalled talks on Tehran’s broken nuclear deal with world powers.
It is not clear when or where the rocket was launched, but the announcement came after satellite images showed preparations at Iran’s Khomeini spaceport in Iran’s Semnan province, the site of Iran’s frequent failed attempts to launch a satellite into orbit.
State media broadcast dramatic footage of the blast amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program, which is unfolding under declining international supervision.
Iran has previously said it plans more tests for the satellite-launched rocket, which launched for the first time in February last year.
Ahmad Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran’s Defense Ministry, said Zullanah, 25.5 meters long, was capable of carrying a 220-kilogram (485-pound) satellite that would eventually collect data in low Earth orbit and promote Iran’s space industry. Zuljanah is named after Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The White House said it was aware of Iran’s statement and criticized the move as “useless and destabilizing.”
The launch comes just a day after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell traveled to Tehran in a bid to revive talks on Iran’s nuclear program, which have been stalled for months. Several important points remain, including Tehran’s demand for Washington to lift sanctions against terrorism against its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Borrell said on Saturday that talks on the nuclear deal would resume in an unnamed Gulf state in the coming days, with Iranian media reporting that Qatar was likely to host the talks.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018 and again imposed devastating sanctions against Iran. Tehran has responded by significantly increasing its nuclear work and is now enriching uranium closer than ever to arms class levels.
In a further escalation that limits the international community’s view of its nuclear program, Iran removed more than two dozen International Atomic Energy Agency cameras from its nuclear facilities this month. The agency’s director called the move a “fatal blow” to the shabby nuclear deal.
Tehran’s rocket launches have caused alarm in Washington amid the unraveling of the nuclear deal. The United States warns that the launches oppose a UN Security Council resolution calling on Iran to avoid any activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
The White House said Sunday that it is committed to using sanctions and other measures to prevent further progress in Iran’s ballistic missile program.
A 2022 U.S. intelligence assessment of the threat, released in March, said such a launch vehicle “shortens the timeline” to an intercontinental ballistic missile for Iran because it uses “similar technology.”
Iran, which has long said it is not looking for nuclear weapons, maintains its satellite launches and missile tests have no military component.
Even as the Iranian government sharpened its focus on space by sending several short-lived satellites into orbit and launching a monkey into space in 2013, the program ran into recent problems. There have been five consecutive failed launches of the Simorgh satellite-type rocket program. A fire at the Imam Khomeini spaceport in February 2019 also killed three researchers.
The launch pad used in preparation for the launch of the Zuljanah rocket remains the mark of an explosion in August 2019, which even attracted the attention of then-President Trump. He later tweeted what looked like a classified image from watching the failed launch. Satellite photos from February suggest a failed launch of Zuljanah earlier this year, although Iran did not acknowledge it.
Meanwhile, the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in April 2020 revealed its own secret space program by successfully launching a satellite into orbit. The guard manages its own military infrastructure alongside Iran’s regular armed forces.
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DeBre reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Tom Strong of Washington contributed to this report.
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