John Kerry
John KerryReuters

The United States is open to a "new arrangement" with Iran for peacefully resolving disputes such as its recent ballistic missile tests, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

Kerry’s comments came as he met with the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to advance a series of proposals aimed at easing Arabs' concerns about last year's Iran nuclear deal and the warming of ties between the U.S. and Iran.

After declaring America was united with Persian Gulf countries against the Iranian missile tests, Kerry said the U.S. and its partners were telling Iran that they were "prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues."

He added that Iran first had to "make it clear to everybody that they are prepared to cease these kinds of activities that raise questions about credibility and questions about intentions." Kerry didn't elaborate further.

The Iranian regime earlier this month fired a number of ballistic missiles in tests across the country. The words “annihilate Israel” were reportedly written on the missiles, and Iranian officials claimed the missile systems being developed were needed “to confront the Zionist entity” and to ensure “its collapse”.

Those tests followed several similar tests in October, which a team of UN sanctions monitors later confirmed had violated of a UN Security Council resolution.

In January, the United States imposed sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals in response to the October missile tests and recently it named units from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involved in the country's ballistic missile program to its sanctions blacklist.

And last week, the U.S. and its European allies wrote a letter to the Security Council demanding it take actions over Iran’s repeated ballistic missile tests.