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DUBAI Iran said on Wednesday it had test-fired a new ballistic missile, prompting a tough response from a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran's defense minister said the test did not breach the Islamic Republic's nuclear agreement with world powers or a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the pact,

Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but the latest test was the first since Trump entered the White House. Trump said during his election campaign that he would stop Iran's missile program.

"The recent test was in line with our plans and we will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defense affairs," Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan told Tasnim news agency. "The test did not violate the nuclear deal or (U.N.) Resolution 2231."

Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, said the United States was putting Iran on notice over its "destabilizing activity" after it fired the missile.

"As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice," Flynn said, without explaining exactly what that meant.

Flynn said the missile launch defied the U.N. resolution that called on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

A U.S. official said Iran had test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday and it exploded after traveling 630 miles (1,010 km).

The Security Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and recommended the missile testing be studied at committee level. The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called the test "unacceptable".

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Tehran would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country.

Some 220 Iranian members of parliament reaffirmed support for Tehran's missile program, calling international condemnation of the tests "illogical."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is against weapons of mass destruction, so its missile capability is the only available deterrence against enemy hostility," the lawmakers said in a statement carried on state media on Wednesday.

The state news agency IRNA quoted Ali Shamkhani, head of Iran's National Security Council, as saying Iran would not seek "permission from any country or international organization for development of our conventional defensive capability".

The Security Council resolution was adopted to buttress the deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear activities to allay concerns they could be used to develop atomic bombs, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

The resolution urged Tehran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Critics say the resolution's language does not make this obligatory.

Tehran says it has not carried out any work on missiles specifically designed to carry nuclear payloads.

The test on Sunday, according to U.S. officials, was of a type of missile that had also been tested seven months ago.

Iran has one of the Middle East's largest missile programs but it has been dogged by a poor record for accuracy.

However, Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said on the day of the test that the country was now one of the few whose ballistic missiles were capable of hitting moving objects.

This would enable Iran to hit enemy ships, drones or incoming ballistic missiles.

Some of Iran's precision-guided missiles have the range to strike its regional enemy Israel.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Iran's new missile test a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. resolution. He said he would ask Trump in their meeting in mid- February for a renewal of sanctions against Iran.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Giles Elgood)

TOKYO U.S. President Donald Trump's defense secretary on Friday reaffirmed America's commitment to its mutual defense treaty with Japan during a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

SEOUL U.S. President Donald Trump's defense secretary warned North Korea on Friday of an "effective and overwhelming" response if it chose to use nuclear weapons, as he reassured South Korea of steadfast U.S. support.

WASHINGTON The Trump administration said on Thursday that Israel's building of new settlements or expansion of existing ones in occupied territories may not be helpful in achieving peace with Palestinians, adopting a more measured tone than its previous pro-Israel announcements.

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Iran confirms missile test, drawing tough response from Trump ...

Iran on Friday banned U.S wrestlers from participating in the Freestyle World Cup competition in response to President Donald Trump's executive order forbidding visas for Iranians, according to an official IRNA news agency report.

The news agency quoted Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi saying a special committee reviewed the case and eventually the visit by the U.S. freestyle wrestling team was opposed.

The decision marks the first action taken by Iran in response to Trump's executive order banning visas for seven Muslim countries, including Iran. Earlier this week, Iran said it would take retaliatory action. Ghasemi said the policy of the new U.S. administration left Iran no other choice but to ban the wrestlers.

The competition in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah is scheduled for Feb. 16-17.

USA Wrestling had said it would send a team to participate in the Freestyle World Cup, one of the most prestigious competitions in all of international wrestling.

Wrestling is extremely popular in Iran and U.S. freestyle wrestlers have competed there since the 1998 Takhti Cup in Tehran following an absence of nearly 20 years. Since then, Americans have attended Iran-hosted wrestling competitions 15 times. Iranians, in return, made 16 visits to the USA as guest of USA Wrestling since the 1990s.

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Responding to Trump, Tehran bans travel of US wrestlers to Iran - Los Angeles Times

House Speaker Paul Ryan meets with reporters on Thursday. He said he would support additional sanctions on Iran following a ballistic missile test over the weekend. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

House Speaker Paul Ryan meets with reporters on Thursday. He said he would support additional sanctions on Iran following a ballistic missile test over the weekend.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he would be in favor of additional sanctions on Iran, one day after National Security Adviser Michael Flynn admonished Iran for a ballistic missile test it conducted on Sunday.

"I'd like to put as much toothpaste back in the tube as possible. I think the last administration appeased Iran far too much," Ryan said at a news conference.

On Wednesday, Flynn said "we are officially putting Iran on notice," but declined to elaborate.

President Trump said Thursday that "We have to be tough. It's time we're gonna be a little tough, folks," adding, "We're taken advantage of by every nation in the world, virtually. It's not gonna happen anymore."

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country would not yield to "useless" U.S. threats from "an inexperienced person" over its ballistic missile program, according to Reuters. Velayati did not specify which so-called inexperienced person he was referring to.

Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday on MSNBC that "the Iran sanctions that have gone in place ... have always been through U.S. leadership."

"I think it's appropriate for us to lead on pushing back," he continued, adding that he believes "it's too early to talk about military options" and "at a minimum we're looking at tougher sanctions on the nuclear issue."

Corker also echoed Flynn's remarks, expressing uneasiness with the enforcement of the 2015 international deal to curb Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and accusing Iran of violating a weapons-related U.N. Security Council Resolution, also passed in 2015.

That side agreement replaced an outright prohibition on missile tests, with language calling upon Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology," as we reported.

The nuclear deal between Iran and six countries, including the U.S., was reached in July 2015 and required Iran to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, as we reported.

NPR's Philip Ewing reported that, "Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab allies in the Mideast were nervous about the effect of relieving Western sanctions on Iran in exchange for its agreement not to build a nuclear weapon. Obama tried to ease their worries by offering more American-built military hardware, including fighter aircraft and missile defense systems."

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Lawmakers Raise Possibility Of Sanctions Against Iran - NPR

I am a U.S. Marine veteran, a sergeant of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, Machine Gunner, Weapons Platoon, Golf Company. Before that, I served a year standing guard on the towers at Guantanamo Bay, watching the minefields and recording every instance of a Cuban truck driving in the distance. I enlisted in 1997 because I was grateful to the nation that had opened its doors and given me opportunities and freedoms that my Iranian relatives were not given under the oppressive regime of the ayatollah. I owed something to this country, and I was proud to do my due.

I was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1978. As the Iranian Revolution began in 1979, my parents brought me I was only a few months old to the United States. The rest of my Iranian family stayed in Iran.

Of course, Iran then became a religiously oppressive state. My uncle, Rasuul, was an adolescent when he was sent to war against Iraq, with the promise of heaven if he should die. And die he did, walking in front of a tank formation across a minefield.

My mother is Iranian and my father is American, so I am a citizen of the U.S. and Iran. Had we stayed, I would have had to serve in the Iranian military.

Other family members who stayed have lived under this oppressive regime. Everything they do in public is watched. My relatives have been arrested because of what they wore in public, or beliefs they were suspected of having.

Three of my Iranian family members are now in the United States: a cousin and two aunts. They are still citizens of Iran, and they are here because my mother, who is an American citizen, is serving as their sponsor. My aunts' children, our grandmother and dozens more of our relatives still live in Iran.

With the Trump administration's new refugee and travel restrictions, are we at risk of not seeing our relatives again?

I served in the Marine Corps because I was proud of America's heritage of accepting diverse people, and because the United States was willing to accept some risk for the sake of humanitarian goals.

I served in the Marine Corps because I was grateful that I was raised in the United States and not in Iran. I was grateful for our free and excellent schools and our freedoms of expression and religion. These are the things that made the United States beautiful to me, and worth risking my life.

For my entire life, this has been a core part of my identity. It has shaped my choices and pursuits. It has contributed to the best parts of who I am.

Now, with each effort to ban, slow or detain foreigners and refugees, with each law that would have prevented my family from migrating to the U.S. and with each move that targets Muslims, Arabs and Persians, my justification for serving in the Marine Corps is disappearing.

Kamran Swanson is a professor of philosophy at Harold Washington College.

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An Iranian veteran of the U.S. Marines, feeling tested - Chicago Tribune

Trump Administration Set to Impose New Sanctions on Iran Entities as Soon as Friday Wall Street Journal WASHINGTONThe Trump administration is set to impose fresh sanctions on dozens of Iranian entities for their alleged role in missile development and terrorism, in a move likely to escalate U.S. tensions with Tehran, according to people close to the ...

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Trump Administration Set to Impose New Sanctions on Iran Entities as Soon as Friday - Wall Street Journal