The Washington Post:

By Susannah George and Mustafa Salim

Iran last week launched its most extensive military exercises in decades, flying thousands of drones, parading rocket launchers and ballistic missiles, and thwarting a simulated assault on a nuclear facility that involved “a multitude of air threats,” according to state television coverage.

The exercises were carried out in response to “new security threats,” said Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Iran has not stopped producing missiles for one day, and its defense systems are fully alive and, in many cases, upgraded.”

But the public remarks cannot quite obscure the significant currents of anxiety in Iranian society. President-elect Donald Trump has promised a tougher stance on Iran, including tightened sanctions, while an increasingly emboldened Israel reportedly is considering a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran has been on the defensive for months, facing direct attacks from Israel and weathering losses in Lebanon and Syria. New U.S. sanctions are expected to target Iranian oil sales to China, analysts say, further squeezing the struggling economy.

During the military exercises, commanders highlighted Iran’s new air defenses more than two months after an Israeli attack damaged or destroyed key elements of the country’s highly sophisticated systems, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery.

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