Iran claimed to have successfully launched a spacecraft on Friday, the most recent in a series of launches for a program that the West claims enhances Tehran's ballistic missile program, according to the Associated Press.

According to reports, the launch was carried out at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province utilizing Iran's Simorg program, a satellite-carrying rocket that has seen several unsuccessful flights.

With Israel's wars against Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, tensions in the area are already high.

Additionally, Iran loaded the Simorgh with a payload bigger than its prior successful launches, weighing 300 kilograms (660 pounds). The launch's success was not immediately confirmed by an impartial source. A request for comment was not immediately answered by the US military. The statement comes as Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the tense truce in Lebanon continue to escalate tensions throughout the wider Middle East.

The United States has repeatedly criticized Iran's space program, claiming that it violates a resolution of the United Nations Security Council and requesting that Tehran engage in nuclear-capable ballistic missile operations.

The late hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, accelerated Iran's space program, which had stalled under former President Hassan Rouhani due to concerns over escalating relations with the West.

Given its uranium-enriched territory, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that Iran is fully capable of creating multiple nuclear bombs should it decide to do so. However, Iran has stated that the space program is solely for civilian uses and denied any desire for nuclear power.