DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran used Russian-made long-range air defence systems in a military exercise on Wednesday, following Israeli strikes last October which Israel said had seriously weakened Tehran’s defensive capabilities.
The exercise took place one day after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss regional topics including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Both leaders said Iran could not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, with Trump announcing earlier the resumption of his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
On Oct. 26, Israeli war planes hit missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, the Israeli military had said. This followed an Iranian attack on Israel on Oct. 1 involving about 200 ballistic missiles.
Iranian state TV reported on Wednesday that in a simultaneous operation, Iran’s long-range air defence system Bavar-373 and Russian-made S-300 shot down a hypothetical hostile target by firing missiles.
“Some enemy officials and media outlets, after the malicious attack in October, had claimed that they had rendered Iran’s long-range air defence systems non-operational,” it said.
Israel’s then defence minister Yoav Gallant said in October that the Israeli strikes had weakened Iran’s attack and defensive capabilities, leaving it at a huge disadvantage in the event of future action.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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