President Obama lashed out at Iran for supplying thousands of rockets and missiles to terrorists groups that launch them in attacks on Israel.

Leaders in Tehran are supplying the means of attacks, or financing, for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, Obama said in his first formal White House news conference.

Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired thousands of rockets and missiles into southern Israel, while Hezbollah terrorists in 2006 fired thousands of weapons into northern Israel, with Israeli buildings being destroyed and Israeli citizens being injured, some fatally.

There is an immense gulf of mistrust between Iran and the United States, and bridging that divide won’t be accomplished immediately or easily, Obama warned.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be wiped from the map, that Israel soon shall cease to exist, and that the United States is the Great Satan.

Obama, while complimenting the people of Iran, said the government in Tehran is menacing other nations. "Its actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity, both in the region and around the world," Obama said.

He excoriated Iranian "attacks or their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas," along with "the bellicose language that they’ve used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon, or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon."

It is because Iran is producing nuclear materials that might be used to build a nuclear arsenal, and because it has shown it has mastered long-range missile technology, that the United States proposes to build a European Missile Defense system. (Please see separate stories in this issue.)

Iranian renegade actions have multiple negative repercussions, Obama said. "All those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace," the president said.

On the one hand, he held out hope for diplomacy and talks, as he did when he was a candidate running for election to the White House.

But if there are to be talks with Iran, as Obama has discussed, they will include criticisms of Tehran, he said. "It’s important that even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country — that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable; that we’re clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing."

Obama concluded that he hopes his administration will provide a fresh start, after the strained relations between the Bush administration and some Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.