WASHINGTON — Iran’s long-range missile test yesterday will result in the country’s further diplomatic isolation, the White House is saying.

Both Europe and America are condemning Iran’s action, calling it provocative and in violation of three U.N. Security Council resolutions passed to pressure the Islamic Republic to end its enrichment of uranium.

The firing of nine Shahab-3 missiles over the Strait of Hormuz capable of hitting Israeli and American bases in the Middle East appeared to be intended by Iran as a response to Israeli air force exercises last month over the Mediterranean Sea.

The air force commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, said the missile test was in response to American and Israeli threats. “Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch,” he boasted on Iranian state-run television.

The test was preceded by a combination of threats and assurances on Tuesday. While the country’s often bellicose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Iran did not seek war with the West, the representative of the supreme leader to the Revolutionary Guards’ navy, Ali Shirazi, said that if America and Israel attacked Iran, “Tel Aviv and U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran’s first targets and will be burned.”

The foreign ministries of France, Italy, and Britain denounced the Iranian missile test yesterday, though an Israeli spokesman was more subdued. “Israel does not threaten Iran, but the Iranian nuclear program, combined with their aggressive ballistic missile program, is a matter of grave concern,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Olmert, Mark Regev, said.

The deputy White House press secretary, Gordon Johndroe, said the missile test would lead to increased diplomatic isolation for Iran. Secretary of State Rice said the test and development of the long-range ballistic missiles were a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The testing of the Shahabs led Defense Secretary Gates to highlight the importance of missile defense. “This certainly addresses the doubts raised by the Russians that the Iranians won’t have a longer-range ballistic missile for 10 to 20 years,” he said. “The fact is they just tested a missile that has a pretty extended range. So, my view, in the first instance, is we’ve been saying, as we’ve talked about missile defense in Europe, that there is a real threat. And it seems to me that the test this morning underscores that.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday threatened force if America installed a missile defense system in the Czech Republic.

A National Intelligence Estimate released in December 2007 said Iran had been developing ballistic missiles with a range that could hit European cities one day. In February, the director of national intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell, said the missile program and current enrichment activities were evidence of a likely weapons program, despite the intelligence estimate’s assertion that Iran had frozen its weapons program in fall 2003.

Iran is continuing its work on low enriched uranium at the Natanz and Arak facilities, in defiance of three U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency has yet to verify that Iran is not concealing a parallel nuclear weapons program.

In testimony yesterday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, said Iran has not significant progress toward producing the highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear explosion.

“While Iran seeks to create the perception of advancement in its nuclear program, real progress has been more modest,” he said. “It’s apparent that Iran has not yet perfected enrichment and, as a direct result of U.N. sanctions, Iran’s ability to procure technology or items of significance to its missile programs, even dual-use items, is being impaired.”

Mr. Burns also touted the State Department’s exchange programs with Iran, including hosting the country’s national table tennis team this week.

The missile test caught the attention of both major candidates for president.

Senator Obama said the tests underscored the fact that Iran now posed “the greatest strategic challenge to the United States in the region in a generation.” The presumptive Democratic nominee also called for “direct and aggressive diplomacy with the Iranian regime backed by tougher unilateral and multilateral sanctions. It’s time to offer the Iranians a clear choice between increased costs for continuing their troubling behavior, and concrete incentives that would come if they change course.”

Senator McCain said the tests pointed up the need for tougher sanctions. In an interview with CBS News, the Arizona senator said: “There are European financial institutions that are extending unlimited lines of credit to the Iranians. Shut all of that down. Make things very, very tough economically on the Iranians on trade and other ways. I think it can have a beneficial effect.”