Iran Conducts Air Defence Drills Above Bushehr Nuclear Facility

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Iranian armed forces carried out an air defence exercise in the airspace above the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Monday morning, Deputy Governor-General of the Bushehr Province for Political, Security, and Social Affairs, Mohammad Taqi Irani, said.

"The purpose of this exercise was to prepare and fully coordinate the armed forces", Irani said, as quoted by the Fars news agency, adding that "the Armed Forces exercises were held in the south of Bushehr Province and the Persian Gulf".

In June, operations at Bushehr were briefly disrupted by what the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said was sabotage involving cyberattacks.

The Bushehr facility is located in the southeastern part of Iran along the coast of the Persian Gulf. It is a joint Iranian-Russian project. The plant's first energy block was built and connected to the national power system of Iran in September 2011.

Iran is yet to settle its debt with Russia for the construction of the Bushehr plant, as its funds remain frozen in Japanese and South Korean banks due to US sanctions.