US Official: Launch Attendance Further Proof Iranian Satellite not Civilian

A senior official in the Trump Administration says Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Aerospace Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), oversaw Tuesday’s launch of a satellite, indicating it was not for civilian purposes. The US official, who remained unnamed, accused Hajizadeh of having been behind not only the destruction of a US drone and a missile attack that targeted US soldiers in neighboring Iraq, but the mistaken downing of a Ukrainian airliner. “This was a space launch conducted by the Iranian military for military purposes,” the official stated, relying on what was called a declassified assessment of the satellite’s launch from a site in eastern Iran. The official also noted the launch method, which employed “a rapid deployment, mobile launch system, which is inconsistent with any civilian application.” US–Iran tensions have spiked in recent months following incidents that have generally involved pushback by Tehran against American economic sanctions and, most recently, close and “dangerous” encounters with IRGC speedboats by US warships in what Washington insists was international waters in the Persian Gulf.