Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stated that the UN Security Council resolution supporting the recent nuclear deal contradicts Iran’s “red lines,” The New York Times reported today.

General Jafari’s remarks, reported in an interview with Iran’s Tasnim news agency, appeared to be primarily concerned with the restrictions in the Security Council resolution on Iran’s missile capabilities. They are not part of the nuclear accord. …

“Some of the points inserted in the draft are clearly in contradiction to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s major red lines and violate them, particularly regarding arms capabilities, and we’ll never accept it,” General Jafari was quoted as saying, referring to the Security Council resolution.

Stressing that he spoke as a military man, he said that what troubled him the most was what he saw as the resolution’s violation of “the very critical red line, namely maintaining and upgrading Iran’s defense capabilities.”

Jafari was apparently referring to the embargo on Iran’s ability to import and export ballistic missiles, a restriction that will be lifted after eight years under the terms of the deal.

Iran refused to discuss its ballistic missile program as part of the nuclear talks, even though ballistic missiles can be used to carry a nuclear payload. The Times also noted that Iran ships its weapons, in violation of current sanctions, to terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran demanded the cancellation of the embargo as negotiations on the nuclear deal were concluding earlier this month. The United States and other negotiating parties capitulated to this demand, even though, as Center for the National Interest senior fellow Andrew Bowen pointed out, lifting the restriction could put the American military “at serious risk.”

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