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Iran's government announced war game exercises aimed at testing the nation's defenses against a potential attack on its nuclear facilities.

At the same time, the Iranian democratic opposition is seeking support from the West.   

Time reports:

After more than five months of going it alone, Iran's opposition Green Movement is reaching out to the United States for help. Via public and private channels, the Obama Administration has received several appeals in recent weeks to take a stronger stand against human-rights abuses in Iran, avoid military action and impose more aggressive and rapid-fire sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards and its vast business interests.

The opposition's outreach comes as the Administration weighs the next move in its diplomatic effort to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. Tehran has effectively rebuffed a confidence-building deal that would ship out the bulk of Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile to be converted into fuel rods for a medical-research reactor — which would also have added about a year to the time frame within which Iran could weaponize nuclear material. The deal would have offered more time for longer-term diplomatic negotiations. As a result, President Obama has begun trying to rally international support for a new round of sanctions.

Here's a FoxNews report on the war games and an interview with neo-conservative John Bolton:

Press TV, an Islamic Republic of Iran news agency, published the following bulletin on their site:

Iran to test new air defense system

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Iran is to test a new anti-aircraft defense system during a five-day aerial maneuver, the Iranian defense minister has said.

 

The large-scale maneuver, which was launched on Sunday, is mainly aimed at developing the country's aerial defenses against any potential attack on the country's nuclear plants.

"The Defense Ministry's new anti-aircraft defense system will be tested in the Aseman-e-Velayat 2 maneuver," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Sunday.
The Aseman-e-Velayat 2 is said to be Iran's biggest military drill to date.

He also said that while Iran would pursue a long-stalled deal with Russia over the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, the Iranian Defense Ministry plans to design and build its own air defense system.

Russia and Iran clinched a deal on the sale of S-300 system in December 2007. Unofficial reports claim that the Russian-Iranian contract on the sale of the S-300 missiles to Iran is worth $800 million.

However, Russia has repeatedly delayed the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 missile defense system, a mobile land-based system designed to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.

Earlier in November, Vahidi criticized Russia over its repeated delays, saying Moscow had a "contractual obligation" to provide Iran with the system.
Russia is also running behind schedule in the launch of the Bushehr nuclear plant in southeastern Iran.

The plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999 but its completion has repeatedly been delayed, and even after ten years, Moscow is still postponing the launch of the facility.

Russia has cited 'technical' issues as the reason for the delays, ruling out that the decision was politically-motivated.
AKM/HGH