In apparent defiance of White House warnings, Iran fired another missile on Wednesday from a launch pad in Tehran—the same place it had conducted another missile test last month, officials said.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the missile used in Wednesday’s launch was a short-range Mersad surface-to-air missile, which landed some 35 miles out from the launch, Fox News reported.
Iran used the same Semnan launch pad that it had used to conduct a ballistic missile test in late January, triggering a response from the Trump administration.
According to CNN, a U.S. official said that Wednesday’s launch may have been connected to Iran’s 10-day celebration of the 1979 revolution.
The United States last week slapped new sanctions on the Islamic Republic after several White House officials said that the Shia Muslim-majority country is now “on notice.” President Donald Trump issued a similar statement soon after that.
Even Democratic Party officials, notably California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, verbally assailed Iran, with Feinstein calling the launch “very dangerous” and the launch “should not have happened.” She agreed with Trump that new sanctions are needed, Fox reported.
Last week, National Security Adviser Mike Flynn said the international community was “too tolerant of Iran’s bad behavior.”
“The days of turning a blind eye to Iran’s hostile and belligerent actions towards the United States and the world community are over,” Flynn said.
Trump, meanwhile, said Iran “is playing with fire” and “don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them.”
On Jan. 29, Iran launched a new type of medium-range ballistic missile that forced the U.N. Security Council to hold a snap meeting two days later.
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