TEHRAN, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that Iran will send two new satellites into orbit in near future, state TV reported.
"In the coming weeks, we will send two new satellites into space using our domestically-built rockets," he was quoted as saying.
"Missiles are our defensive tool and we are proud of it," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier in January that Iran's planned launch of space rockets and missiles breaches UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231 that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal.
However, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Pompeo's claims, saying that Washington has already violated that resolution and thus cannot "lecture" Tehran on it.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology, said that new Iranian satellites had successfully passed pre-launch tests, according to Press TV.
In July 2017, Iran launched an indigenous satellite carrier Simorgh in low earth orbit.
Simorgh is able to carry satellites weighing as much as 250 kilograms at an orbit about 500 km above the earth's surface.
In February 2015, Iran also placed the domestically-made Fajr (Dawn) satellite into orbit. The satellite is capable of taking and transmitting high-quality and accurate pictures to stations on earth.
The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into space in February 2010 using Kavoshgar-3 Explorer-3 carrier.
Iran launched its first indigenous data-processing satellite, Omid (Hope), into orbit in February 2009.
