Tabnak – The US President Donald Trump is known for his criticism of the mainstream American media, labelling them as "fake news.” However, it seems that he has just recently become a source of spreading "real fake news” about an Iranian missile lunch that wasn’t!
According to a Trump administration, US intelligence radars and sensors "picked up no indication" of an Iranian ballistic missile launch in the days surrounding a reported test.
Iranian reports that the nation tested a new ballistic missile so far does not appear to be true, CNN quoted the official as saying, adding that "As far as we can see, it did not happen."
But was the real story?
On September 22, Iran released video footage of a missile test, just a few hours after the country displayed a projectile during a military parade. The next day, Trump responded on Twitter. "Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea. Not much of an agreement we have!” he said, referring to the Iran nuclear deal.
The tweet, and the video, came just after Trump said that the Iran nuclear agreement reached by his predecessor was an "embarrassment" to the United States and insulted the Iranian government in front of the entire world at the United Nations General Assembly.
Now, after it’s proved that his latest claims against Iranian missile program was based on faked, un-checked information, it is rightful to ask if his aggressive positions toward the nuclear deal is of the same nature.
In its report of the story, The Huffington Post notes that initial concern that Trump had tweeted classified information has now turned to concern the President could take action into response to "fake news”.
Furthermore, one should remind that there is basically nothing in the nuclear deal that said Iran would agree not to test ballistic missiles, and so far there is no indication that the country’s nuclear program has restarted.
There is of course a UN Security Council resolution that includes language specifically about Iran’s ballistic missiles. "Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day,” it reads.
However, the phrase "called upon” doesn’t necessarily mean "forbidden.” It basically just means "it would be nice if you didn’t.” So even based on the UN documents, what Trump tries to sell as undiscussable facts are nothing but his own interpretation of the document.
