Abu Dhabi // The United States on Thursday vowed to respond to Iran’s latest ballistic missile test and other hostile actions, with president Donald Trump saying “nothing is off the table”.
The White House comments came after Mr Trump reiterated a warning by his national security adviser Michael Flynn that Tehran had been put “on notice” following its ballistic missile test on Sunday and an attack on a Saudi frigate in the Red Sea by Tehran-backed rebels in Yemen.
Asked what steps the US intended to take, spokesman Sean Spicer said: “We will have further updates for you on those additional actions, but clearly [Mr Flynn] warned to make sure that Iran understood that they are on notice, that this is not going unresponded to.”
Earlier, Mr Trump tweeted: “Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the US made with them!”
He also claimed that “Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the US came along and gave it a lifeline”.
Mr Trump’s remarks came as the German newspaper Die Welt cited German intelligence sources as saying that Iran had also test-fired a new cruise missile, called the Sumar, on Sunday that is believed to be capable of carrying a nuclear weapon and has an upper range of 3,000 kilometres. The missile’s technical capabilities were not possible to verify.
Cruise missiles can be controlled in flight and also fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, making them a much harder target for missile defence systems.
According to a Reuters translation, a security expert told Die Welt that cruise missiles are not covered by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear deal agreed between Iran and world powers in July 2015.
Mr Flynn said on Wednesday night that Sunday’s “provocative” missile test and the Houthi ship attack, which was announced by the Saudi-led coalition on Monday, underscored “Iran’s destabilising behaviour across the entire Middle East”.
The national security adviser also said that the administration of Barack Obama had “failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions, including weapons transfers, support for terrorism and other violations of international norms”.
Senior White House officials said later that Iran was providing weapons, financing and training to the Houthi rebels with the aim of building “a long-term presence in Yemen”.
Mr Flynn did not say the latest Iranian ballistic missile test was a breach of the nuclear accord, but that it was “in defiance” of it. Resolution 2231 “calls upon” Iran to refrain only from ballistic missile activity designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Previous Iranian missile tests carried out since the nuclear deal took effect in January last year have been found by the Security Council to not be in breach of the accord.
Russia, with whom Mr Trump wants increased cooperation to fight extremists in the Middle East, is a partner of Tehran and does not consider the missile tests a breach.
With US officials still to elaborate on what measures they will take against Iran, it is unclear whether there will be a new strategy of containing Tehran’s regional ambitions – something that Washington’s Gulf partners have long called for.
Mr Trump spoke with Saudi and Emirati leaders last week, and the new US defence secretary, James Mattis, spoke with his Saudi counterpart on Tuesday.
White House national security officials have said only that “a range of options” were being considered, including economic sanctions and increased support for Iran’s adversaries.
“We do not want to be premature or rash or take any action that would foreclose options or unnecessarily contribute to a negative response,” one of the officials said.
Also on Thursday, defence minster Hossein Dehghan provided Iran’s first confirmation that a new medium-range ballistic missile was tested on Sunday. He said it was successful, contrary to US claims that it malfunctioned and detonated prematurely.
“The test was not a violation of a nuclear deal with world powers or any UN resolution,” Mr Dehghan told Iranian state media.
Mr Dehghan’s confirmation came as a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, responded to the US warnings.
“This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran ... the American government will understand that threatening Iran is useless,” Ali Akbar Velayati told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, referring to Mr Trump.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae