Iran cleric: We'll hit 'heart of Tel Aviv' if attacked

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1129636.html

Last update - 21:59 21/11/2009

Iran cleric: We'll hit 'heart of Tel Aviv' if attacked

By Reuters

senior Iranian cleric warned on Saturday that the Islamic Republic
would fire missiles at Tel Aviv if attacked, shortly after Iran's
military announced it would begin large-scale drills on Sunday to help
protect its nuclear facilities.

"If the enemy should want to test its bad luck in Iran, before the
dust from its missiles settles in this country, Iran's ballistic
missiles would land in the heart of Tel Aviv," said cleric Mojtaba
Zolnour, the IRNA news agency reported.

Zalnour is a deputy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's
representative in the Revolutionary Guards, which will be staging the
defence drills together with the regular armed forces.

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 insists its nuclear program is solely to generate
electricity, has also threatened in the past to hit back at Israel and
U.S. bases in the Gulf if it is attacked.

The war games are due to last five days, Iranian media quoted
Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani as saying.

The officer also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced
missile defense system that Russia has so far failed to deliver to the
Islamic Republic and which Washington and Israel do not want Tehran to
have.

The official IRNA news agency said the exercises would take place in
western Iran and that they would be "huge."

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 maneuvers will involve both the elite Revolutionary
Guards and the regular armed forces against a hypothetical enemy,
Iranian media reported.

"This week's air defense maneuvers 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 U.S. 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.

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, Alaeddin 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.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Russia last month for
failing to provide the arms to Iran.

The truck-mounted S-300PMU1, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot
down cruise missiles and aircraft. It can fire at targets up to 150 km
away.

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