PRAGUE: The director of the US Missile Defense Agency said yesterday that Iran’s missile tests have emphasized the urgency of going ahead with plans to place a proposed US missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meanwhile warned Iran that the United States will not back down in the face of Iranian threats against Israel.

Iran answered hours later with another round of missile tests that included those launched from naval ships in the Gulf and surface-to-surface missiles.

Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles on Wednesday during war games in response to US and Israeli threats regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Tehran claimed Wednesday’s launch included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of 2,000 km. That would put Israel, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Pakistan all within striking distance.

Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said it is not clear exactly what Iran has launched.

“I don’t have specific insider data yet,” he said during a news conference at the Czech Foreign Ministry. “But based on what the Iranians themselves have said, it emphasizes the urgency of what we’re doing for missile defense,” he said.

“So Iran today is showing that they can launch, based on their own assertions, a 2,000-km missile. So what will they be able to do in three or four, five years?” Obering said.

On Tuesday, Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed an initial agreement to deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a missile shield that Washington says is intended to deal with the threat from Iran.

Israel’s defense minister hinted yesterday that Israel was ready to attack Iran’s nuclear program, saying it didn’t balk before “when its vital security interests” were at stake.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was alluding to Israel’s 1981 airstrike on an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.

“Israel is the strongest country in the region and has proved in the past that it doesn’t hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake,” Barak told a meeting of his Labor Party.