- Houthi rebels attack Saudi warship in Red Sea
- As Iraq asks Trump administration to “reconsider” travel ban
Israel’s prime minister has accused Iran of carrying out a missile test in “flagrant violation” of a UN security council resolution.
Benjamin Netanyahu said he would discuss renewing sanctions when he met US President Donald Trump in February.
Iran has carried out several such tests since a 2015 nuclear deal which relaxed sanctions against the country, despite Western criticism.
The White House said it was studying the details of the incident.
“Iranian aggression must not go unanswered”, Mr Netanyahu added.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missile had broken up before the test was completed.
It is not yet clear what type of missile was launched, or if it explicitly violated the UN resolution.
The resolution calls on Iran not to undertake any activity related to “ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons”.
Iran says it does not have any nuclear weapons.
But US Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the foreign relations committee, said: “No longer will Iran be given a pass for its repeated ballistic missile violations.”
Mr Trump has previously called the Iran nuclear deal “a disaster” and suggested his administration will abandon it.
But that has drawn criticism from senior figures, including the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan.
Mr Brennan, who stepped down when President Trump took office, told the BBC late last year that tearing up the agreement “would be the height of folly” and “disastrous”.
But Mike Pompeo, who has succeeded Mr Brennan as director of the CIA, was a prominent critic of the deal.
In the meantime, Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi warship in the Red Sea, killing two sailors and injuring three others, a US official told Fox News.
The warship, Al Madinah, was conducting routine operations on Monday when the attack occurred.
However, it was unknown if the ship was hit by a missile or by suicide attack after being rammed by a small boat, the official said.
The US military was monitoring the situation.
The warship was able to continue her transit despite the damage, he added.
In another development, Iraq asked the United States on Monday to reconsider the travel ban on its citizens, taking a more diplomatic line than the Iraqi parliament which demanded the government retaliate.
“It is necessary that the new American administration reconsider this wrong decision,” the foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of a meeting between Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari and U.S. Ambassador Douglas Silliman to discuss the ban.
“No Iraqi has been involved in terror attacks in the U.S.,” Jafari told the ambassador, the minister’s website said.
The United States gives financial assistance to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government and provides critical air and ground support to Iraqi troops fighting Islamic State militants who overran a third of Iraq in 2014. More than 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Iraq
The foreign ministry statement said: “We affirm Iraq’s desire to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.”
President Donald Trump on Friday temporarily banned U.S. entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and halted the admission of refugees.
Earlier on Monday, the Iraqi parliament called on the government to impose “similar treatment” on U.S. nationals.
BBC with additional report from Zee News and MSN
