The US and its allies have sent a letter to the UN Security Council demanding action in response to an illegal Iranian missile test.

AFP:

 The United States will seek action at the UN Security Council after concluding that Iran's recent ballistic missile launch was a "clear violation" of UN resolutions, the US ambassador said Friday.

Iran announced Sunday it had successfully tested a new domestically produced long-range missile, which it said was the first that could be guided all the way to targets.

"After reviewing the available information, we can confirm that Iran launched on October 10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon," US Ambassador Samantha Power said.

"This was a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1929," she added in remarks released to the press.

Power said the United States would present a report on the violation to the UN sanctions committee in the coming days and press for "an appropriate response to Iran's disregard for its international obligations."

The launch came months after some Iranian officials voiced concern that the Islamic republic's recent nuclear deal with world powers could place limits on its missile program.

The Security Council resolution adopted a few days after the nuclear agreement bars Iran from developing missiles "designed to carry nuclear warheads."

Iran has said its missiles would never carry a nuclear warhead as it has no plans to develop atomic weapons, but military officials have insisted on expanding the country's missile program.

Was it just a coincidence that the Iranian parliament gave preliminary approval to the nuclear deal just days after the missile test? The test was a deliberate slap in the face to the United States, with Iran knowing full well they were in violation of Security Council resolutions about its missile program. 

But the Iranian government is not as monolithic as one might think. It is a balkanized system where the Supreme Leader encourages factions so that they can't unite against him. In this case, fanatics may have been threatening to derail the nuclear deal unless President Rouhani demonstrated that nothing would slow the development of a nuclear capable missile. Knowing that the reimposition of sanctions would not be on the table, the Iranians took a small gamble in testing the new missile.

So, the US and its allies send the dreaded "strongly worded letter" to the Security Council, going through the motions of protesting the missile launch.And the fiction of having Iranians in a box continues.