Hillary Clinton
Hillary ClintonReuters

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton blasted Iran over reports of further ballistic missile tests on Wednesday, calling for new sanctions on the Iranian regime, Reuters reported Wednesday night.

Earlier this week, the Iranian Defense Ministry had announced that it had conducted a series of ballistic missile tests, the first since the US imposed tougher sanctions on the Islamic Republic following tests of the Emad intermediate range ballistic missile, which is capable of hitting Israel.

On Wednesday the Iranian military made additional missile tests, firing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles able to reach Israel. Iran’s semi-official Fars news outlet reported that the message “Annihilate Israel” was written on the missiles.

One senior Iranian military official told Fars the missile test was made with Israel explicitly in mind, to ensure that the weapon would be capable of hitting the Jewish state. Amir Ali Hajizadeh explained that the missiles were needed “to confront the Zionist entity” and to ensure “its collapse”.

Clinton responded to the tests by saying “Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the international community must demonstrate that Iran’s threats toward Israel will not be tolerated.”

But the former First Lady was quick to emphasize the need to preserve the framework of the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration last year.

“This demonstrates once again why we need to address Iran’s destabilizing activities across the region, while vigorously enforcing the nuclear deal.”