Iran’s president denounced the United States on Thursday for suggesting the possibility of new sanctions over Iranian missiles, and he ordered his Defense Ministry to respond by swiftly building more of them.

Hours after circulating a draft of proposed sanctions on Wednesday, however, the White House did not provide a timetable or even say that they would be put into effect.

Still, the action by the president, Hassan Rouhani, came against a backdrop of increased friction between the United States and Iran. That friction appears to have discouraged any hopes of reconciliation in the near future despite the international agreement reached over the summer to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities, which required close collaboration by diplomats from the two countries.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said Mr. Rouhani, responding to the American government’s “illegal intervention in Tehran’s right to boost its defensive power,” had instructed the defense minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, to “quickly and firmly continue with its plans to produce different missiles needed by the country’s armed forces.”