Iran on Monday defended the recent missile strike on Islamic State's (IS) militants in Syria's eastern region, calling it a deterrent measure against terrorism.
Rouhani, the chairman of the SNSC, said the body had in response to the terrorist attacks in Tehran given wider authority to the country's Armed Forces than the missile raid on Daesh in Syria.
The statements come just one day after the Revolutionary Guards confirmed it had launched strikes in retaliation for twin attacks in Tehran earlier this month, which killed 18 people and left more than 50 others wounded.
This strike marks the first time Iran has fired missiles as an act of war since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
Russia, which has provided military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2015, was reacting to us military confirmation that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian SU-22 fighter-bomber on Sunday. The US and Saudi Arabia were specifically mentioned by an Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman as part of its audience for the "message" it sent by firing the missiles.
The missiles were launched from Kermanshah in western Iran near the border with Iraq. An IRGC statement on Sunday said the missiles hit "the command headquarters and gathering centers and logistical sites in which suicide vehicle bombs were being assembled" with "pinpoint" accuracy and killed a "large number" of terrorists and destroyed their equipment and weapons.
Sunday's assault marked an extremely rare direct attack from inside the Islamic Republic amid its support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Bassam Abu Abdullah, a professor of International Relations at Damascus University, said the advances by pro-Assad troops undermined USA plans in the area to sever a land corridor linking the capitals of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
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There was no official reaction from Syria, which has been backed by Iran as it seeks to force Islamic State forces off of its territory.
Iran's attack on Syria failed, as the majority of the Zulqifar missiles missed their target.
Tehran has warned ISIS militants that any future attacks on the country will result in powerful strikes against the group.
Both the United States and Russian Federation contend their forces are in Syria to fight ISIS. "This attack, before being a message for the terrorists, is a message for the supporters of terrorism in the region which are symbolized by the Saudi regime and the Americans", the state television website quoted Iranian parliamentarian Javad Karimi Qoddousi as saying.
The "flagrant aggression" highlights coordination between the U.S. and Islamic State and "reveals the evil intentions fo the USA in administering terrorism", the general command said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.
Alongside Monday's summoning of the Swiss envoy, Iran also sent a protest letter to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, the ISNA news agency reported. The first Iranian test of the Shahab-3 was in 1998 and the missile was declared operational in 2003.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The strike came a few days after the US Senate passed a bill on new sanctions against Iran.
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