Iran ends third day of military drill

Iran has ended the third day of large-scale defense drills, aimed at strengthening its aerial defense against potential attacks on its nuclear facilities.

"Currently and after completing three stages, the drill has been a success," spokesman for the maneuver, named the Sky of Velayat II, said on Tuesday.

"Advances in the defense capabilities of the air force and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC] … has enabled the country to counter attacks by state of the art missiles," Brigadier General Ali Moqiseh told reporters hours after Iranian servicemen completed the third day of the drill.

Iran on Sunday launched a five-day drill that will cover some 600,000 square kilometers, spreading across the central, western and southern parts of the country.

Moqiseh said the country's biggest military drill to date would also “test advanced equipment and missiles”.

Tehran has been constantly under threat by a nuclear armed Israel that has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear sites should the Islamic Republic continue its enrichment activities.

As the sole possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East with over 200 ready-to-launch warheads in its stockpile, Tel Aviv has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel has also maintained the policy of neither admitting nor denying its possession of nuclear warheads. The doctrine of nuclear ambiguity has enabled Israel to deter foes for decades in a region with only one alleged nuclear power.

The Israeli nuclear program is also part of a deterrence military doctrine that assumes Tel Aviv must maintain an absolute military superiority in the region.

In order to maintain its military advantage, Tel Aviv insists on preventing other Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East, from acquiring nuclear capabilities while remaining outside of the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

According to the same logic, it launched a “preemptive” air strike on the Iraqi breeder reactor in Osirak in June 1981, when the late dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.

During the operation, known as "Operation Opera", a squadron of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircrafts, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor.

Israeli intelligence at the time believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel.

In September 2007, Israel launched yet another attack against an alleged nuclear facility in Syria. The facility in the eastern Deir ez-Zor region was targeted by at least four fighters which crossed into Syrian airspace just after midnight.