The initial missile test had come hours after the United States and Czech Republic signed a long-awaited agreement to station part of a planned US missile system on Czech soil.
In Bulgaria, visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tests prove the missile system is justified.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “But in terms of the missile test, I see it as evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one and that those who say that there is no Iranian missile threat against which we should be building missile defenses perhaps ought to talk to the Iranians about their claims, even about the distance and the range of the missiles that they test-fired.”

The Bush administration says the missile system would protect Europe from Iranian missiles, but it’s widely seen as a first-strike threat against Iran.