Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) engaged in a 10-day series of war games, broadcasting tests of highly advanced military technology, including long-range ballistic missiles and a topnotch radar system.

Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh called the exercise “a message of peace and friendship to the countries of the region.” Yet according to Agence France-Presse, the West is concerned “Tehran is developing a ballistic capability to launch potential nuclear weapons…under the guise of its civilian atomic programme.”

During the show of force coded “Great Prophet-6,” Iran “unveiled an underground ‘missile silo’ with what it claimed was a Shahab 3 which has a range of 2,000 kilometres [1,250 miles]—meaning it could reach US bases in the region and Israel,” Euronews reported.

“The head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division emphasized Iran’s preparedness to strike Israel and U.S. interests in the event of any attack on Iran,” Haaretz reported. The paper stated that “Iran has been emboldened by what it sees as U.S. military defeats in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Regarding radar capabilities, FARS News Agency reported that the new system is “built to identify aerial targets, radar-evading aircrafts, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles as well as low-altitude satellites.”

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust since taking power in 2005, openly calling for Israel’s destruction and citing “Western powers” as the source of “the myth of the Holocaust” (Telegraph).