W.H.: We’re ‘Concerned’ About Iran’s Latest Ballistic Missile Test

EARNEST: “Julia.”

EDWARDS: “Josh, a team of sanctions monitors issued a report today that said that the October 10th missile that Iran launched wasn’t violation of the U.N. ban. Does this amp up the pressure for the United States to issue more sanctions on Iran, or is that [indecipherable] seen as potentially complicating the nuclear deal?” 

EARNEST: “Julia, I believe that the reference you’re making us to a document that has leaked from the U.N. this morning. I’m certainly not going to get ahead of any announcements that have made by this panel of experts. I would note, however, that the United States, through our ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, raised our concerns about this October 10th medium-range ballistic missile launch back on October 21st. And in raising those concerns, Ambassador Power described that launch as a — as another clear violation of United Nations sanctions. So it is — it should be quite clear that this is something that we’ve been concerned about for a while, and we consider this to be a serious matter that undermines regional stability. And that’s precisely why the United States has raised this issue and pressed it so aggressively before the Security Council. But what we also noted at the time is that a number of the individuals who were connected to that launch are already subject to significant sanctions by the United States, but I certainly wouldn’t rule out additional steps if international security officials determined that additional sanctions would be useful in countering this activity. I would say that probably the most important thing, however, that can be done is for other countries to respond to the call that United States has repeatedly made, to more intensively focus our efforts on countering Iran’s ballistic missile program. And there are a variety of things that we can do that relate to intelligence sharing in terms of stopping the flow of some technology and contraband into Iran that we know is used to advance their ballistic missile program. And I would note this does underscore the significance of the historic international agreement that was reached earlier this year that will ensure that Iran is not obtain a nuclear weapon. There are obvious concerns that people have legitimately about what role these kinds of test could have in advancing Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That’s why it’s so important that we’re able to in a verifiable way determine that Iran is not in fact, developing a nuclear weapon.”