Iran Army Trains for Electronic Warfare, Simulates Air Attacks

Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
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Iran Army Trains for Electronic Warfare, Simulates Air Attacks

Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)

The Iranian army kicked off electronic warfare drills, simulating combat conditions and air attacks by fighter jets, drones, and helicopters.

Iranian media showed video footage of Iranian army commander-in-chief Abdolrahim Mousavi and deputy chief for coordination General Habibollah Sayyari at the command center of the electronic warfare drills.

They were seen communicating with army commanders via a television network before the launch of the drills, codenamed “Shield of the State’s Guardians.”

The Army's Public Relations Department said the exercises include electronic support operations for fighter jets and drones and testing electronic defense systems against drones.

Reuters quoted state television as saying that units of the naval, ground, and air forces, as well as air defenses, participated in the exercises in the largely desert central region in central Iran.

The drills featured locally-made radars, drones, manned and unmanned combat jets, micro aerial vehicles, and other military equipment.

State-run English Press TV quoted Sayyari as saying the army has the appropriate infrastructure and has achieved favorable results in countering threats in today’s world and predicting future threats in this sensitive and complicated arena.

Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that bar it from importing many weapons.

Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its weapons capabilities.

On Tuesday, Tehran announced the manufacture of an advanced, domestically-made drone called “Mohajer-10,” with an enhanced range and flight duration, with a greater payload-carrying capacity.

The United States accuses Iran of providing Russia with the Mohajer-6 drones, among other drones, since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, which Tehran denies.



Iran to Hold Run-off Presidential Election

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 29, 2024 shows (FILES) Iranian presidential candidate and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (L).
(FILES) Massoud Pezeshkian, reformist candidate. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 29, 2024 shows (FILES) Iranian presidential candidate and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (L). (FILES) Massoud Pezeshkian, reformist candidate. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran to Hold Run-off Presidential Election

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 29, 2024 shows (FILES) Iranian presidential candidate and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (L).
(FILES) Massoud Pezeshkian, reformist candidate. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 29, 2024 shows (FILES) Iranian presidential candidate and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili (L). (FILES) Massoud Pezeshkian, reformist candidate. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will hold a runoff presidential election, an official said Saturday, after an initial vote saw the top candidates not securing an outright win in the lowest turnout poll ever held in the country by percentage.

The election this coming Friday will pit reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesman, announced the result in a news conference carried by Iranian state television. He said of 24.5 million votes cast, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million while Jalili received 9.4 million.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf got 3.3 million. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000 votes.

Iranian law requires that a winner gets more than 50% of all votes cast. If not, the race’s top two candidates will advance to a runoff a week later.

There’s been only one runoff presidential election in Iran’s history: in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bested former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Eslami acknowledged the country's Guardian Council would need to offer formal approval, but the result did not draw any immediate challenge from contenders in the race.

The overall turnout was 39.9%, according to the results. The 2021 presidential election that elected late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi saw a 42% turnout, while the March parliamentary election saw a 41% turnout.

There had been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests who remains under house arrest, has also refused to vote along with his wife, his daughter said.

There’s also been criticism that Pezeshkian represents just another government-approved candidate.

Raisi, 63, died in a May 19 helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others.