Iran begins war games to protect nuclear sites

Iran began on Sunday large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting the country's nuclear facilities against any possible attack, state television reported. It said the five-day drill will cover an area a third of the size of Iran and spread across the central, western and southern parts of the country.

The drills were announced on Saturday by Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani, head of army air defense, who said the main aim is to thwart aerial threats on Iran's nuclear facilities - from reconnaissance to actual assault - posed by an imaginary enemy. "Due to the threats against our nuclear facilities it is our duty to defend out nation's vital facilities and thus these maneuvers covers Bushehr, Fars, Isfahan, Tehran and western provinces," Mighani said. "Our unit will be in charge of the maneuvers but there will be units from the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (militia)," he added. The United States and its European allies accuse Iran of embarking on a nuclear weapons program. Iran denies the charge and insists the program is only for peaceful purposes.

Israel has not ruled out military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The commander of the Guard's air force, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, meanwhile sought on Sunday to play down the significance of Israel's threats against his country, saying they amounted to psychological warfare. "We are sure they are not able to do anything against us since they can not predict our reaction", Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Guard's official Web site, Sephahnews. "Their (Israeli) F-15 and F-16 fighters will be trapped by our air defense forces and will be annihilated," Hajizadeh told Fars news agency. "Even if their planes escape, they will be struck by our destructive surface-to-surface missiles before they land at the bases they took off from."

Also on Sunday, Iran's defense minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, said Iran planned to pursue designing and producing its own air defense missiles, according to the official IRNA news agency. His comments were apparently in response to the delay in the delivery from Russia of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, a key component of Iran's air defense.

Iran complains that the delay is apparently the result of Israeli and U.S. pressure. Israel and the United States have opposed the missile deal out of fear Iran could use the system to significantly boost air defenses at its nuclear sites - including its main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

Iran's still non-operational nuclear power plant is in southern Bushehr province while its uranium enrichment plants are in Isfahan and near Tehran. The West believes Iran's enrichment work is masking an atomic weapons programme but Tehran insists it is purely for generating electricity. Washington and Israel have never ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Tehran has often held defense war games and has boasted advances in military capabilities in a bid to show its readiness to counter any military threats over its disputed nuclear programme. The Islamic republic has also warned it will hit back at Israel and U.S. interests in the region if it is attacked.