scale air defense war games Sunday to help protect its nuclear facilities against any attack, a senior commander said. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Mighani also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced missile defense system which Russia has so far failed to deliver to Tehran 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 to pressure by Israel, not technical problems as cited by Moscow, Mighani said. “We are hopeful the Russians will ignore the pressure of the Zionist lobby,” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying on Saturday. Iran refers to Israel as the “Zionist regime.” The military manoevers will last for five days 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. Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity, has threatened to hit back at Israel and US bases in the Gulf if it is attacked. “This week's air defense manoevers will be held with the intention of protecting the country's nuclear facilities,” Mighani said, Fars reported. State television said the defense drills would “ensure better protection” for these facilities. The war games were announced a day after senior officials from six world powers said they were disappointed Iran had not accepted proposals intended to delay its potential to make nuclear weapons, and urged Tehran to reconsider. The United States, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France met after US President Barack Obama warned there could be a package of sanctions against Iran within weeks. Iran often holds defense exercises and announces advances in military equipment in order to show its readiness to counter any threats over its disputed nuclear program. 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.
