Iran shows off military capabilities
TEHRAN - Iran's army and Revolutionary Guard staged large-scale air defense war games yesterday in an effort to show off the country's deterrence capabilities amid rising pressure from the West over its nuclear program, state television reported.
Images broadcast yesterday included warplanes dropping bombs on targets in the desert, rockets being launched and paratroopers boarding Chinook troop helicopters. Iranian leaders had warned earlier that any attempt by Israel to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities would be met with a military response.
"If the enemy tries its luck and fires a missile into Iran, our ballistic missiles would zero in on Tel Aviv before the dust settles on the attack," Mojtaba Zolnour, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Revolutionary Guard Corps, told state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
The display of military muscle came as Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, insisted Iran needs guarantees that it will receive nuclear fuel on time for its research reactor if it is to agree to a swap of uranium proposed by the West, reported the semiofficial Iranian Students' News Agency.
The United States, Russia and France have said they are running out of patience with Iran, which has not given a formal answer on a proposal for trading a large part of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium for the higher-enriched uranium that the country needs for medical uses, such as cancer treatments.
"The main issue is how to get a guarantee for the timely supply of fuel which Iran needs," said Soltanieh. "We are ready to have negotiations with a positive approach, but . . . we need to have those guarantees." Previous statements by Iranian leaders have suggested the nation was unlikely to agree to a deal.
