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Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has dismissed that the country's missile-launching activity threatens neighboring counties.

“We have no plan to attack any neighboring country and Iran’s missile activity only have defense purposes,” Fars news agency quoted the president as saying on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting this morning.

He slammed the critics of Iran’s missile activity and those who urged the UN Security Council to probe into the country’s recent missile launches and said Iranians hate tensions.

He further expressed hope that with the contribution of the Islamic Republic, the peace, stability and security will be established in the region and the hostile countries will give up violence.

Earlier on March 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the world powers to take "immediate punitive steps" against Iran, following its ballistic missile tests last week.

On March 9, Iran’s test-fired several ballistic missiles from several bases across the country as part of a recent massive missile drills.

While a couple of Western and regional states claims the recent tests have violated a UN resolution, Iranian officials have constantly reiterated that Tehran's ballistic missile tests do not violate the nuclear agreement it reached with the P5+1 group of countries and are not in breach of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

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