Tehran: Iran`s Islamist Basij militia
unveiled two new video games depicting Israeli "crimes" today,
on the eve of annual Palestinian solidarity rallies, the
official IRNA news agency reported.
One of the games, dubbed "Assault on Freedom Convoy," is
set around Israel`s deadly May 31 commando raid on an aid
flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of Gaza which
sparked an international outcry.
A website run by student Basijis said the game exposes
the "crimes of the Zionist regime during the attack on the
flotilla," which left nine Turkish activists dead and sparked
a crisis in Israel`s traditionally close relations with
Turkey.
The second game unveiled by the head of the student wing
of the Basij, Mohammad Reza Jokar, is called "Devil Den 2,"
IRNA said.
"The young generation must find out about the Zionist
regime and since video games enjoy large audiences, they were
unveiled ahead of Quds Day," it quoted Jokar as saying in
reference to the annual solidarity day marked since the 1979
revolution on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
In recent years, Iran has released a number of video
games focussing on political issues, including its
controversial nuclear programme, as it attempts to provide a
more ideologically acceptable alternative to pirated Western
games.
Iran has been bitterly opposed to the state of Israel
ever since the revolution, an animosity that has hardened
under the presidency of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has
repeatedly predicted the Jewish state`s demise.
Israel, which is widely believed to have the Middle
East`s sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal, has never ruled out
a resort to military action against Iran to stop it developing
a weapons capability of its own, an ambition Tehran denies.
PTI
