We voiced concern about Iran shortly after the whole Navy sailor capture/riverine command boat incident, when the shifty Middle Eastern superpower that is Iran went ahead and flew a freaking drone — with surveillance equipment attached — right over an American warship.

In that post, we ran through all of the obvious points that suddenly seemed flimsy, most notably the nuclear agreement Iran shook hands on at the tail end of 2015.

Which brings us to Tuesday, and the following stunt pulled by none other than, that’s right, you guessed it: the former Persia.

They call it “The Power of Velayat”, which is in reference to a religious document tied to the Islamic governance that controls the nation.

This from the AFP:

Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests Tuesday in what it said was a display of “deterrent power,” defying US sanctions imposed earlier this year aimed at disrupting its missile program.

State media announced that short-, medium- and long-range precision guided missiles were fired from several sites to show the country’s “all-out readiness to confront threats” against its territorial integrity.

Pictures of the launches were broadcast and reports said the armaments used had ranges of 300 kilometres (190 miles), 500 km, 800 km and 2,000 km.

The United States hit Iran with fresh sanctions on its missile program in January, 24 hours after separate sanctions related to Tehran’s nuclear activities had been lifted under a landmark deal with world powers.

Here’s where it gets a little dicey: the tests were performed by the country’s Revolutionary Guard which is answers to not the newly-elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, but their “supreme leader”, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

One of their generals, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, even had these strong words about the incident, which make the landmark agreement seem like a complete and utter joke, rather than an airtight pact.

Again, from AFP:

“Our main enemies, the Americans, who mutter about plans, have activated new missile sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and are seeking to weaken the country’s missile capability,” Hajizadeh said.

“The Guards and other armed forces are defenders of the revolution and the country will not pay a toll to anyone… and will stand against their excessive demands.”

The hot air from anti-American military personnel is one thing. The hot air from the missiles being fired willy nilly? Yeah, that’s a whole other thing and something that really can’t be ignored by the leader(s) in Washington.

UPDATE: Oh look — there’s more.