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ByVivianSalama and Josh Lederman The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Thurs- day his administration has put Iran "on notice," echo- ing comments from his top national security adviser that the U.S. will act against Iran unless it stops testing ballistic missiles and sup- porting Houthi rebels in Yemen. Trump and his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, didn't elaborate on what retaliatory actions the U.S. could pursue. Trump tweeted, "Iran has been formally PUT ON NO- TICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!" He added in another tweet: "Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion." Aspartofthenucleardeal struckduringtheObamaad- ministration, Iran received access to an estimated $100 billion of its own money that had been frozen in foreign bank accounts. The U.S. did not give Iran $150 billion. Flynn on Wednesday forcefully denounced Iran's behavior in his first pub- lic remarks since Trump took office. He accused Iran of threatening U.S. al- lies and spreading insta- bility throughout the Mid- dle East while faulting the Obama administration for doing too little to stop the Islamic Republic. "As of today, we are offi- cially putting Iran on no- tice," Flynn said from the White House podium. On notice for what, Flynn didn't say. Senior Trump administration officials said they were actively consider- ing a "range of options" in- cluding economic measures and increased support for Iran's regional adversaries. The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, declined repeat- edly to say whether military action is being considered. Iran's acting commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard,Gen.HosseinSalami, responded in comments to the semi-official Tasnim news agency Thursday, say- ing Iran will "never change direction by a world power's demand,andourmissileand nonmissilepowerwillbeup- dated every day." Salami added, "If our missile power was not such a power to put fear into the hearts of Americans, there is no reason for these con- troversies." The warning was an early manifestation of Trump's promise of a tougher Amer- ican approach to Iran. Yet administration officials emphasized that their al- legations were unrelated to Iran's obligations under the Iran nuclear deal that President Barack Obama and world leaders negoti- ated. Though Flynn noted Trump has criticized that deal, officials declined to say whether Trump planned to follow through on his campaign pledge to renegotiate it. "The Obama administra- tion failed to respond ade- quately to Tehran's malign actions — including weap- ons transfers, support for terrorism and other vio- lations of international norms," Flynn said. The White House also faulted Iran for backing Houthi rebels in Yemen who claimed Tuesday a success- ful missile strike against a warship belonging to a Saudi-led coalition fighting to reinstall Yemen's interna- tionally recognized govern- ment. The media arm of the Shiite rebels said the vessel was believed to belong to the Saudi Arabian navy. Administration officials said Iran was providing key support by arming, train- ing and financing the reb- els, with a goal of leverag- ing its relationship with the Houthis to "build a long- term presence in Yemen." The White House said the goal in putting Iran "on notice" was to signal to Tehran that it needed to rethink its behavior. Flynn said Iran specifically vi- olated the U.N.'s ban on "activity related to ballis- tic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nu- clear weapons, including launches using such ballis- tic missile technology." Iran's Defense Minis- ter Gen. Hossein Dehghan confirmed Wednesday that Iran conducted a missile test, but did not say when the test was carried out or specify the type of missile. He insisted it wasn't a vi- olation of U.N. resolutions. The U.S. said the test was of a medium-range ballis- tic missile. It ended with a "failed" re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, said a U.S. defense official, who wasn't authorized to dis- cuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of ano- nymity. NATIONAL SECURITY TrumpputsIran'onnotice'a erballisticmissiletest CAROLYNKASTER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House Wednesday. By Julie Pace and Rod Mcguirk The Associated Press WASHINGTON Australia's prime minister insisted Thursday that a deal negoti- atedwiththeObamaadmin- istrationwasstillontoallow mostly Muslim refugees re- jected by Australia to be re- settled in the United States, though President Donald Trump called it "dumb" and pledged a review. The conflicting messages came as a U.S. official con- firmed that the agreement became a source of fric- tion on the first telephone call between Trump and Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull. The official described Trump as "very strong" in Saturday's call and partic- ularly concerned about the deal. The official denied re- ports that Trump hung up on Turnbull, but acknowl- edged the call was shorter than Trump's other discus- sions with world leaders. The call ended after less than 30 minutes, well ear- lier than scheduled. Trump, in a speech, ap- peared to acknowledge Thursday the tense phone call, as well as one with the Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. "Believe me. When you hear about the tough phone calls I'm having, don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it," he said at the Na- tional Prayer Breakfast in Washington."They'retough. We have to tough. It's time we're going to be a little tough folks.We're takingad- vantage of by every nation in the world virtually." Hours before Trump spoke, Turnbull told re- porters in Australia that the strength of the U.S.-Austra- lia relationship was evident by the fact that Trump had agreed to honor the deal to resettle refugees from among about 1,600 asylum- seekers, most of whom are on island camps on the Pa- cific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Aus- tralia has refused to accept them and instead pays for them to be housed on the impoverished islands. "I can assure you the rela- tionshipisverystrong,"Turn- bull said. "The fact we re- ceived the assurance that we did, the fact that it was con- firmed,theveryextensiveen- gagement we have with the new administration under- lines the closeness of the al- liance. But as Australians know me very well: I stand up for Australia in every fo- rum — public or private." It wasn't long before Trump took to Twitter to slam the deal. "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why?" Trump tweeted. "I will study this dumb deal!" Details of their call were first reported by The Wash- ington Post, which said Trump called the refugee agreement "the worst deal ever" and accused Turn- bull of seeking to export the "next Boston bombers" — a referenceto brothers Tamer- lan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. DI PL OM AC Y Au st ra li an l ea de r, T ru mp d is ag re e on r ef ug ee d ea l By Matthew Lee The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Thurs- day revised recent U.S. sanctions that had un- intentionally prevented American companies from exporting certain consumer electronic prod- ucts to Russia. The change allows firms to deal with Russia's security service, which licenses such ex- ports under Russian law. The Treasury Depart- ment said U.S. companies can now apply to Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, to sell low-level en- crypted electronic devices such as cell phones or tab- lets. Those products had not been intended to be covered by the sanctions which the Obama admin- istration imposed on Dec. 29 after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. In pursuit of such appli- cations, Treasury will also allow firms to pay nomi- nal fees of up to $5,000 per year to the FSB. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, but it also holds some regulatory re- sponsibilities. FSB permission or noti- fication is required by Rus- sian law for encrypted de- vices to be imported, but such contact was barred under the Obama sanc- tions. TRADE US revises Russia sanctions for electronics exports | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017 4 B