WarSclerotic

A high-ranking Iranian official admitted last week that Iran canceled a planned ballistic missile test over warnings from the United States.

According to a report Thursday by Iranian news agency Tasnim, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force, publicly acknowledged that a ballistic missile test scheduled to take place in February was nixed after the White House warned the Islamic republic not to repeat the provocative missile test it performed in late January.

According to the report, Hajizadeh said: “We prepared a ballistic missile for the purpose of launching a satellite for civilian purposes, but there were people who sent it back to the storage facility after a threat was received from the Americans.”

He criticized the move, calling it “humiliating behavior.”

In late January, Iran tested [tested > http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=39983%5D a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring it from testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The test annoyed Washington, with then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn saying the White House had officially put Iran “on notice” and the U.S. was placing additional sanctions on Iran.

Days after Flynn’s warning, Fox News reported that Iran had been frenziedly preparing to launch a missile with the same components as an intercontinental ballistic missile and with properties very similar to that of its Shahab-3 missile. According to the report, which was based on satellite imagery of the launching pad, the missile was, for reasons unknown at the time, removed from the launching pad.