TEHRAN: Iranunveiled its new home-grown air defense system yesterday at a time of increasedtensions with the United States. Iranian officials have previously calledBavar-373 the Islamic republic's first domestically produced long-range missiledefense system. Tehran began making Bavar-which means "believe"-afterthe purchase of Russia's S-300 system was suspended in 2010 due tointernational sanctions.
President HassanRouhani attended the unveiling ceremony for the mobile surface-to-air systemand ordered it to be added to Iran's missile defense network, state news agencyIRNA reported. "The long-range Bavar-373 missile system is suited toIran's geography with a range of more than 200 kilometres (124 miles) ... andcompetes with Russian and American systems such as S-300 and Patriot,"IRNA said. The system is "better than S-300 and close to S-400",Rouhani said in televised remarks after the ceremony, held on Iran's "nationaldefence industry day".
Pictures releasedby his office showed the system mounted on the back of military trucks inTehran. Iran installed the S-300 system in March 2016 following several yearsof delays, after a nuclear agreement reached with world powers the previousyear allowed the lifting of international sanctions. Yesterday's unveilingtakes place against a backdrop of rising tensions with Washington sincePresident Donald Trump last year withdrew the United States from the nucleardeal and reimposed sanctions. Iran shot down a US Global Hawk drone with asurface-to-air missile in June for allegedly violating its airspace, which theUnited States denies.
Iran is preparedto work on French proposals to salvage the international nuclear deal thatTehran signed with world powers in 2015 but it will not tolerate USinterference in the Gulf, its foreign minister said yesterday. At a time ofheightened friction between Tehran and Washington, Iran also displayed what itdescribed as a domestically built long-range, surface-to-air missile airdefense system.
The United Stateabandoned the international nuclear deal in May last year and stepped upsanctions on the Islamic Republic. In an effort to prop up the agreement,French President Emmanuel Macron offered on Wednesday to either softensanctions on Iran or provide a compensation mechanism "to enable theIranian people to live better" in return for full compliance with thepact.
Iranian ForeignMinister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking at at the Norwegian Institute ofInternational Affairs, said he was looking forward to having a seriousconversation with Macron in Paris today. "There are proposals on thetable, both from the French and the Iranian side, and we are going to work onthose proposals tomorrow," he said. Zarif also warned against US effortsto create a security mission, which so far Britain, Australia and Bahrain havejoined, to guard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital gateway for globaloil supplies.
"It's clearthat the US' intention..(of having a) naval presence in the Gulf is to counterIran.. Don't expect us to remain quiet when somebody comes to our waters andthreatens us," Zarif said. Several international merchant vessels havebeen attacked in the Gulf in recent months in incidents that have rocked globalcommodity trading. The United States has blamed Iran, which denies theaccusations.
Adding to thefraught mood, British forces seized an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar in Julythen Iranian Revolutionary Guards detained a British vessel in the Gulf. In hisspeech in Oslo, Zarif said Iran would not start a war in the Gulf but it woulddefend itself. "Will there be a war in the Persian Gulf? I can tell youthat we will not start the war...but we will defend ourselves."- Agencies