Iran to hold drills for protecting nuclear facilities

Tehran: Iran will stage large-scale air defence war games next week to help protect its nuclear facilities against any attack, a senior commander was quoted as saying on Saturdayday.

Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced missile defence system which Russia has so far failed to deliver to the Islamic Republic and which Washington and Israel do not want Tehran to have.

Iran believes Russia's delay in supplying high-grade S-300 missiles was due pressure by Israel, not technical problems as cited by Moscow, Mighani said.

"We are hopeful the Russians would ignore the pressure," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.

The military manoeuvres will begin today and involve both the elite Revolutionary Guards and the regular armed forces against a hypothetical enemy, Iranian media reported.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row over Iranian nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

Growing frustration

Iran, which says its nuclear programme is solely to generate electricity, has threatened to hit Israeli and US bases in the Gulf if it is attacked.

"This week's air defence manoeuvres will be held with the intention of protecting the country's nuclear facilities," Mighani said, Fars reported. He heads the armed forces' air defence headquarters.

Iran often holds defence exercises and announces advances in military equipment in order to show its readiness to counter any threats over its disputed nuclear programme. The official IRNA news agency said the exercises would take place in western Iran and that they would be "huge".

Iranian officials have over the last few weeks voiced growing frustration at Russia's failure to deliver the S-300.

Moscow, which is under Western pressure to distance itself from Iran over the nuclear dispute, has not followed through on proposals to supply the missiles to the country.

"They have declared technical problems as the underlying reason for this delay, but we think it has been due to the Zionists' pressure," Mighani said, according to Fars.

"In various manoeuvres, new and modern missile networks will be used and evaluated, including the advanced S-300 missiles, for which the production capability exists in Iran," IRNA quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

A senior lawmaker, Ala'a Al Deen Boroujerdi, earlier this month also said Iran would be able to produce the S-300 system itself, appearing to refer to missiles with similar capabilities.

Is this a good safety measure? Or will it cause tension between Iran and neighbouring countries?