Iran Test-Fires Long-Range Missile

By Howard Schneider and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers

Iran said today it had test-fired a long-range missile capable of reaching Israel and U.S. troops in the region, a step promptly condemned by the Bush administration as heightening tensions over the country's suspected nuclear weapons program.

The roughly 1,200 mile range of Iran's Shahab-3 rocket has been known for several years, but the test firing -- and pointed statements from Tehran about the country's "capability in hitting its enemies" -- added to a tense climate.

Iran "only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said at the meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan. He said Iran's missiles violate existing United Nations resolutions, and "[t]hey should . . . refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

Iran Test-Fires Long-Range Missile....