The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that U.S. President Barack Obama has long-standing concerns about Iran's missile development programs.
His remarks came just hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran has successfully test-fired a new advanced medium-range surface-to-surface missile that has a range of 1240 miles.
"Obviously, we've seen reports," Gibbs said. "You all know the concerns that the president has about Iran's missile development programs .... and the strong belief that the pursuit of those programs does not strengthen the security of Iran but instead make them less safe."
Gibbs also pointed out that President Obama and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "both agreed on Monday that engaging the people and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, something that hasn't been tried for the past many years, is something that makes sense."
U.S. officials have confirmed the Iranian missile test, saying that the tested missile appeared to be a medium-range one. They also added that the test appeared to be successful.
"The information that I have read indicates that it was a successful flight test," Gates told a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
"Because of some of the problems they've had with their engines we think at least at this stage of the testing we think it's probably closer to the lower end of that range. Whether it hit the target that it was intended for, I have not seen any information on that," he added.
Though Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not mention the missile test while appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday morning, she warned the lawmakers that that a nuclear-armed Iran would "spark an arms race" in the Middle East.
The new Iranian missile test comes on top of the existing tensions over Iran's disputed nuclear program. Though Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful civilian power production purposes, the West suspects that it is just a cover up for the Islamic country's nuclear weapon ambitions.
In April, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and the U.S., the six world powers coordinating the nuclear talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, had invited the Iranians for fresh direct negotiations to find a diplomatic solution to the issue.
Earlier, the big six had offered Iran an incentive package in June 2006, consisting of civil nuclear cooperation and wider trade in civil aircraft, energy, high technology and agriculture, in exchange for backing off its controversial nuclear program.
However, Iran rejected the offer, citing its right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The Islamic country, since then, has survived three sets of UN sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council for its failure to halt the nuclear development work. Separately, the EU also imposed new sanctions on Iran over the same issue in June 2008.
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