Press TV - Iran's Foreign Ministry has dismissed as "fake" French and American concerns about the Islamic Republic's recent strides in space technology, asserting that nothing will stop the Islamic Republic's scientific progress.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will move forward in paths and prioritize choices that will benefit the country's long-term strategic interests and the Iranian people and it sure won't sacrifice its scientific progress over foreigners' unsubstantiated and fake concerns," Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Iran launched a domestically-built satellite into space with an aim to collect environmental information to boost the country's forecasting system.

The first and second stages of the space mission were performed successfully, but technical problems that occurred in the third and final stage kept the domestically-built Simorgh satellite carrier from accelerating to the orbital speed.

The French foreign ministry condemned the launch, claiming that it was in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"Iranian ballistic program is a source of concern for the international community and France," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement, calling on Iran to stop its space launches.

Paris' "concerns" echoed similar remarks by American officials, who had warned ahead of the launch that it contravened the resolution.

Qassemi, however, said there was no reason for concern as the launch had a non-military nature.

"Such capabilities are non-military in nature and are in no way in violation of international laws in this field," he argued.

He said no country could block Iran from developing advanced technologies through an "unfair" interpretation of Resolution 2231.

The real source of concern, Qassemi said, was the Western countries' militarization of West Asia, which has turned the region into a "weapons depot."

"The allies of these two countries (the US and France) are committing shameful atrocities that should definitely cause more concerns than Iran's scientific and domestic activities," he added.