Tehran has deployed a recently delivered Russian-made long-range missile system to central Iran to protect its Fordo nuclear facility, state television said Sunday.

Protecting nuclear facilities is paramount "in all circumstances" General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of Iran's air defences, told the IRIB channel.

"Today, Iran's sky is one of the most secure in the region," he added.

A video showed an S-300 carrier truck in Fordo, raising its missile launchers toward the sky, next to other counter-strike weaponry.

The images were aired hours after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a speech to air force commanders, including Esmaili, in which he stressed that Iranian military power was for defensive purposes only.

"Continued opposition and hype on the S-300 or the Fordo site are examples of the viciousness of the enemy," Khamenei said.

"The S-300 system is a defence system not an assault one, but the Americans did their best for Iran not to get hold of it."

The Fordo site, built into a mountain near the city of Qom has stopped enriching uranium since the January implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers.

Under the historic accord, Iran dismantled most of its estimated 19,000 centrifuges -- giant spinning machines that enrich uranium, keeping only 5,000 active for research purposes.

Iran and the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia negotiated for more than two years before signing a historic July 2015 agreement that removed some international sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran's controversial atomic programme.

Israeli to be extradited to US over Iran defence sales
Jerusalem (AFP) Aug 28, 2016 - Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that a national charged with selling US defence equipment to Iran can be extradited to the United States, the justice ministry said.

It said in a statement that Arye Eliyahu "Eli" Cohen should be rendered to US authorities "in order to stand trial for the commission of federal offences of trading military spare parts with Iran".

"According to the charge sheet on which the extradition request is based, during the years 2000-2004 Cohen exported military spare parts from the United States to his place of residence in Israel," the Hebrew-language statement said.

It said that he and three accomplices in the United States shipped parts for Hawk missiles, fighter aircraft and armoured troop carriers from the US to Israel, using false declarations as to the materials and their final destination.

A transcript of Sunday's court hearing said that the charges alleged that between 2012-2013 Cohen "on two occasions re-exported from Israel to Iran, via Greece, US-made military spare parts used by fighter planes".

The charges were filed in the Federal District Court of Connecticut in 2013, and the United States made an extradition request the following year.

The Jerusalem District Court granted the request but Cohen then appealed to the Supreme Court.

"The act for which extradition is requested constitutes a criminal offence under the laws of both" Israel and the United States, the court said in Sunday's ruling.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused arch-foe Iran of "preparing another Holocaust" and seeking to acquire nuclear arms with which to attack the Jewish state.

He is implacably opposed to last year's nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, which saw the lifting of international economic sanctions in return for Tehran ensuring that its nuclear programme remains purely for civilian use.

An arms embargo on the Islamic republic remains in force.