Iran has test-fired multiple ballistic missiles in defiance of recent US sanctions, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) official website.

The website says missiles were tested on Tuesday in different parts of the country, to demonstrate Iran's "deterrent power".

A state television report showed a missile being fired from a fortified underground silo at night time. The presenter said it was a medium-range Qiam-1 missile.

The tests come two months after the United States sanctioned businesses and individuals linked to Iran's missile program over a test of the medium-range Emad missile carried out in October 2015.

The United Nations said that test, which happened after Iran reached a nuclear deal with world powers in July, violated Security Council Resolution 1929, which barred Iran from undertaking any work on nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

That resolution expired when the nuclear deal was implemented in January, but a new resolution then came into force under which Iran is "called upon" not to undertake any work on missiles "designed to" deliver nuclear weapons.

Iran always denied any link between its ballistic missiles and its disputed nuclear program, which is now subject to strict limitations and checks under the nuclear deal that came into force in January.

While any missile of a certain size could in theory be used to carry a nuclear warhead, Iran has said the Emad and other missiles are for use as a conventional deterrent.

Sepah News, the IRGC's official media service, carried a statement confirming the missile tests, which come less than two weeks after elections in Iran delivered gains to politicians aligned with Hassan Rouhani, the country's moderate president.

The Revolutionary Guards report to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Rouhani, and their influence dwarfs that of the army and other armed forces.

Reuters/AFP