Iran says the United States is triggering a new arms race and threatening international peace and security by testing a cruise missile banned under a now-defunct Cold War-era treaty.

"The US move is likely to cause an arms race across the world, which, in addition to intensifying instability and threatening international peace and security, will impose heavy economic costs on other countries and reduce economic welfare of people in the world as a result," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday.

He condemned the US persistence to follow unilateralism, withdraw from international treaties and undermine international law, regulations and norms.

The Iranian spokesperson called on the international community to show an appropriate reaction to the US’s "destabilizing" measures and its pullout from international treaties which is regarded as a step backwards in international relations.

The US Defense Department announced on Monday that it had tested a type of ground-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers. The test would have been banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a bilateral agreement with Russia that the US scrapped earlier this month.

In the US test-launch, the missile blasted from a launcher on San Nicolas Island, a Navy test site off the coast of Los Angeles, California, and sped above the Pacific Ocean for more than 500 kilometers before striking its designated target, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The INF treaty was signed in 1987, banning land-based missiles with ranges of between 500 to 5,500 kilometers and included missiles carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads.

Before withdrawing, the US accused Russia of violating the deal by developing a certain missile, whose specifics Moscow later publicized to prove Washington wrong.

During a meeting with Russia’s Security Council on Friday, President Vladimir Putin ordered state apparatuses to prepare a “symmetric” response to the US test-launch of the missile that Moscow says could pose a threat to Russia’s security.

Putin called on the Russian Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and other “specialized agencies” to analyze “the level of threat for our country created by the actions of the US and to take comprehensive measures to prepare a symmetric response.”

Earlier on Tuesday, China and Russia warned that the new US missile test has heightened military tensions and risks triggering an “arms race.”

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