Iran has successfully sent a second monkey into space and said retuned it to Earth, the state news agency IRNA is reporting. The country reported it launched the first monkey last January.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani "congratulated Iranian scientists and experts on successfully sending a second living creature into space," the news agency said.

Rouhani announced the latest foray into outer space on Twitter, explaining the monkey's name was Fargam and it had returned to land "safe and sound."

In a second Twitter message Rouhani wrote: "In total, this is the second monkey sent into space and returned in perfect health to Iran."

The event, a show of Iran's advancing missile technology, is far from one to celebrate for other states in the West and Gulf region concerned about the historically-unstable country's nuclear ambitions.

Last month the world's six leading powers struck a deal for Tehran to curb its nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions.

Yesterday, however, Russia warned that if the United States expands a sanctions blacklist that included Iran, it could seriously complicate the deal's rollout.

The Islamic Republic contends it's not exploring greater weapons capability and that it only seeks to generate electric power through uranium enrichment -- so it can export more of its oil.

Critics in the West suspect long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be armed with nuclear warheads.

"We are aware of reports that Iran has launched an object into space," Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a Reuters report. "Our concerns with Iran's development of space launch vehicle technologies are well-known, and we continue to monitor these developments closely."

If reports of the orbiter launch are true, said Riki Ellison, a U.S. missile defense expert, it proves Iran hasn't stopped work on attempts to "expand and grow its long-range missile capabilities, regardless of their overture to the West with self-reduction of their nuclear capabilities." Iran's Arabian Gulf neighbors look at the small country's missile technolgy as a palpable threat.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have invested heavily in the last several years on advanced U.S.-supplied missile defense systems. And Isreal has met Iran's interest in developing ballistic missiles and establish a presence in space with calls for pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, as well as billions of dollars more in U.S. defensive spending.