Iran is opposed to any efforts aimed at militarizing outer space, a senior official said, after the US administration announced an ambitious plan to usher in a new "Space Force" as the sixth branch of the military by 2020.
"Iran is strongly against any arms race in space or the deployment of weapons of any kind there, be it conventional or weapons of mass destruction," Kazem Gharib-Abadi, Tehran's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said in a meeting with Simonetta Di Pippo, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, IRNA reported on Saturday.
US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday unveiled details of plans to build a US Space Force, saying the time has come to prepare for "the next battlefield", AFP reported.
Peaceful Purposes
"Space should be used by UN members exclusively for exploration and peaceful purposes," Gharib-Abadi said, calling outer space the "common heritage of humanity".
US President Donald Trump ordered the creation of Space Force in June, arguing the Pentagon needs it to tackle vulnerabilities in space and assert US dominance in orbit.
Its creation however is not a done deal, as it needs to be approved by the US Congress, and the concept has met with some skepticism from lawmakers and defense officials wary of the cost and added bureaucracy.
The Space Force would be responsible for a range of crucial space-based US military capabilities, which include everything from satellites enabling the Global Positioning System (GPS) to sensors that help track missile launches, according to Reuters.
