Iran ’s supreme leader backed the country’s missile program on Wednesday, criticizing a prominent ayatollah who had suggested that in the future, negotiations were far more important. Defending the military’s recent tests , which critics, particularly in the United States, say are a violation of the recently concluded nuclear agreement, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , said that both negotiations and the testing of missiles were important to Iran . “If the Islamic system pursues technology and negotiations without defense power, then this will be a retreat in the face of threats from other insignificant countries,” Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted as saying in an address in Tehran. “Enemies continue strengthening their military and missile sectors. How can anyone say that the era of missiles has passed?” Ayatollah Khamenei was responding to a […]