BICOM

Amir Hatami, Iran’s new defence minister, has promised to maintain and expand its support to groups such as Hezbollah.

Hatami said that Iran would continue to support Hezbollah, arguing that resistance is rooted in the culture of the Islamic Republic. Hatami said that “perhaps the main fear of the arrogant powers about our relationship with the resistance axis is that they do not want such a pattern to see the light of day”. Hatami went on to say that “resistance means defence in the face of the arrogance and confrontation with tyranny and oppression. According to our religious teachings, we do not accept oppression, usurpation, and aggression, and help those who resist in this axis on the basis of these teachings”.

Yesterday Iran announced that it had tested a new anti-aircraft system, the Bavar–373. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Chief of Air Defence, Brigadier-General Frazad Esmaili stated that the Iranian made system is a variation of the Russian S–300 series and that: “In parallel with the deployment of the S-300, work on a Bavar-373 system is underway.” Brigadier General Esmaili said that: “The system is made completely in Iran and some of its parts are different from the S-300. All of its sub-systems have been completed and its missile tests have been conducted”. The Bavar system is expected to be operational by March 2018 and will be Iran’s first long-range missile defence system.

Iran tried to buy the S-300 for the last decade but was prevented due to international sanctions. After signing the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2015, Iran was able purchase the system from Russia.

Iran’s Arabic language TV station al-Alam reported that the country’s air defence base sent a warning last week to a US spy plane that approached Iranian airspace, claiming that this is the second incident of its kind this year.

Esmaili said Iran does “not allow such rabid aircrafts to enter our territory and if necessary, will not hesitate to destroy them.”