Iranian armed forces launched a major parade on Friday to mark the beginning of Sacred Defense Week

Iranian armed forces launched a major parade on Friday to mark the beginning of Sacred Defense Week.

The parade started in presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a number of high ranking commanders of the army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), in vicinity of Tehran at Imam Khomeiniˈs mausoleum in southern Tehran.

Main branches of Iranˈs armed forces and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) are participating in the parade to show case their latest defense achievements during the event.

The latest domestically-manufactured military technologies and achievements including missiles, armored vehicles, air defense systems and electronic communication facilities will put on display during the parade. The display, involving thousands of military personnel, tanks and missiles borne on trucks, marked the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Iran’s Naval Forces Commander told Al-Manar TV that response to any attack against Iran “won’t be limited to the foreign forces in the region, but everywhere.”

“If the Zionist entity started any war, it won’t have the final say in it,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards' Missile Unit Commander also told Al-Manar.

IRNA said military attaches from 40 counters residing in Iran attended the parade on the first day of especial ceremonies.

Ahmadinejad, in a speech broadcast on state television, said that Iran was using "the same spirit and belief in itself" shown in that war to "stand and defend its rights" today against pressure from world powers.

The Iranian president also touched on an anti-Islam film made in America by an extremist Christian group that has fuelled outrageous protests around the Muslim world.
  
He said US government claims it could do nothing to censor the film was a "deception" exploiting the pretext of freedom of expression. He called the film an Israeli-hatched plot "to divide (Muslims) and spark sectarian conflict."
  
On Holocaust, Ahmadinejad implicitly referred to it saying: "They stand against a question about a historical incident... they threaten and put pressure on nations for posing the question while at the same time in regards to the obscenest insults to the human sanctities and prophets... they shout adherence to freedom (of expression)."