After the blows it suffered: Iran’s moves to restore deterrence

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled an underground “missile city” yesterday (Friday), as part of the many efforts to rehabilitate Iran’s defense system, which has been severely damaged over the past few months. This high-profile move came at the culmination of a week in which the country’s defense system presented a series of exercises and claimed that it had also rebuilt its air defense system.Iranian television yesterday showed footage of Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami visiting an underground missile site there, and it was claimed that this site had been exposed “for the first time”. This is not the first time that Iran presents “missile cities” that are fortified and dug deep in the ground, and in November Ali Amir-Khajizadeh claimed: “What you see is only the tip of the iceberg. There are few cities in Iran that do not have a missile depot. Iran’s missile cities are located 500 meters below to the ground”.

Officials in the Revolutionary Guards claimed this week that they will also present an underground “UAV City” at the same time as the “Missile City” was revealed. This week the Revolutionary Guards revealed a new suicide UAV, designed for attacks at close range, and may be used in the future by terrorist organizations in nearby and closer countries to Israel According to the publication in the Iranian news agency Tasnim, the UAV named “Radvan”, has a range of 20 km and is able to move for about 20 minutes continuously.

Yesterday, Iran’s Basij forces held an extensive exercise and march against Israel in the streets of Tehran, involving 110,000 fighters, the Iranian media reported. This exercise continued a series of high-profile military exercises conducted by Iran this week, mainly in the area of ​​the air defense system.

Iran claims to have renewed its air defense system

Iran announced that it carried out a “successful” exercise that simulated the interception of a bomb penetrating bunkers in the area of ​​the underground nuclear facility in Natanz – in a move that was clearly intended to simulate an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. After the Israeli attack on Iran on October 26, which completely destroyed the air defense system in Iran, it was announced this week that they had deployed new type 358 air defense systems in the country.

Against the background of these things, the commander of the IRGC’s air defense system said this week: “Iran’s air defense systems were slightly damaged in the recent Israeli aggression, and the damage was repaired immediately. We have now added many reinforcements to the system.”

Iran’s crisis – and the effort to reduce the pressure of the West

In Iran, they are desperate to restore their security image and deterrence after the series of blows they have suffered – starting with the severe attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah by the IDF forces, the destruction of the Iranian air defense system and the display of high penetration following the Israeli attack in October, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the very serious economic and energy crisis that threatens the authorities At the same time, it is possible to identify the concern in Iran From the discourse in Israel about taking advantage of the opportunity now to attack the nuclear facilities, and the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House and the intention to bring back the “maximum pressure” policy.

Iran continues to signal its willingness to return to the nuclear agreement, as part of their steps to remove Western pressure from them at such a difficult time for Tehran. On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry officials are expected to meet with representatives of European powers for another discussion, the second in recent times, about the nuclear agreement in Geneva, Switzerland. Either way, no decision on the nuclear issue is expected to be made before Trump’s return to office, despite his statements in September that he is interested in bringing about a new nuclear agreement.

In the meantime, Iran was already forced to accept the new reality in Lebanon yesterday, with the election of Joseph Aoun to the position of president, who was not the preferred candidate of Hezbollah and its patronage in Tehran. Despite this, President Masoud Pazkhian and the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were quick to send congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of the new appointment – after more than two years without a president.