Iran will stage large-scale air defense war games next week to help protect its nuclear facilities against any attack, a senior commander said Saturday, as the head of a hardline political party called for a top opposition leader to face trial for spreading the "big lie" about the elections.
Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani, who called for Mousavi to go on trial, also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced missile defense 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 of the Zionist lobby
"We are hopeful the Russians would ignore the pressure of the Zionist lobby," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as saying. Iran refers to Israel as the "Zionist regime."
The military maneuvers will begin on Sunday 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 U.S. bases in the Gulf if it is attacked.
"This week's air defense maneuvers will be held with the intention of protecting the country's nuclear facilities," Mighani said, Fars reported. He heads the armed forces' air defense headquarters.
Mousavi "trial"
I believe both Mousavi and all those who propagated this big lie must face trial in a court of law
Meanwhile a hardline opposition leader called for Mir Hossein Mousavi to face trial for spreading the "big lie" of fraud in June's disputed election.
"I believe both Mousavi and all those who propagated this big lie must face trial in a court of law," said Mohammad Nabi Habibi, secretary-general of the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Any legal action against Mousavi, who has vowed to press on with his drive for political reform in the Islamic Republic, may trigger new street protests by his backers.
Mousavi and other opposition figures say the June poll was rigged to secure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The authorities reject the charge and have portrayed post-election opposition demonstrations as foreign-backed.
Other hardliners have also called for legal action against Mousavi, a former prime minister who came second in the June 12 presidential vote, which sparked months of political turmoil.
Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday that five people have been sentenced to death and 81 have received jail terms of up to 15 years in connection with protests and violence after the poll.
On Friday, the commander of an Islamic militia which helped quell the opposition demonstrations that erupted after the vote said it would confront any further "street riots," speaking ahead of a memorial for a dissident couple.
The daughter of the couple, stabbed to death by Iranian security agents in 1998, has urged people to attend the gathering on Sunday to commemorate their killing, a reformist website reported.
The deaths of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, who headed the illegal but tolerated Iran Nation Party, and at least two other secularist figures around the same time outraged many Iranians.
Iranian authorities have warned the opposition against staging "illegal" rallies.
Since the June protests, Mousavi supporters have clashed with security forces at two official commemorations, one held annually to support Palestinians and the other to mark the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the revolution.
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