The Trump administration's actions against Iran are warranted, and more will be on the way, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, told CNBC on Friday.
The White House slapped Iran with new sanctions on Friday following the test-firing of a medium-range ballistic missile, a move it says is in defiance of a U.N. resolution.
Corker said the U.S. action does not violate the nuclear deal with Iran.
"If we do not push back against Iran and just … radically enforce this agreement, they will take every opportunity to violate and over time they will, in fact, be in a very different place. So this is an important step, it's an important signal and I think more is going to be coming on the way," the Republican from Tennessee said in an interview with "Closing Bell."
"If you are going to have an agreement with a country like Iran, you've got to enforce it and this is the first step toward making sure we are doing that," he added.
Iran denounced the sanctions as illegal and said it would impose legal restrictions on American individuals and entities helping "regional terrorist groups," state TV quoted a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement as saying.
Corker said he believes the Trump administration will ultimately renegotiate the existing agreement with Iran.
"Right now we really paved the way for them after year seven or eight to obtain the ability to quickly make a nuclear weapon with no breakout time so I think this is just the beginning," he said. "You are going to see an effort to really change the terms of this over time."
— NBC News and Reuters contributed to this report.