Game created to encourage Iran's youth to support nuclear technology

Jul 16, 2007, 10:39 GMT

Teheran - Iran's Islamic High School Society on Monday introduced a computer game to encourage the Iran's youth to support the country's struggle to gain nuclear know-how.

The game called 'Special Operations 85' follows two Iranian nuclear scientists who are arrested and jailed by the United States while on a pilgrimage to southern Iraq.

The hero of the game - an Iranian special agent - not only is to save the Iranians but catch an Israeli-Iranian spy who transfers classified nuclear information to the West.

The press was invited by the society to view the first public viewing of the game.

'We chose computer games as the most popular appliance currently among kids to transfer (ideological) values such as sacrifice and martyrdom to our pupils while focusing on the nuclear issue,' said the secretary general of the society, Mohammad-Taqi Fakhrian.

Iran has so far rejected international demands to stop its nuclear programmes and tried to expose the nuclear goal as a national issue.

Observers consider the computer game an effort by the government to reach younger generations to support Iran's nuclear programmes and resist Western pressure and possible financial sanctions through the United Nations Security Council.

Fakhrian rejected criticism that the game to some extent espouses terrorism, adding that the game's aim was to demonstrate the defence of honour and dignity as well as to counter Western computer games aimed at weakening Iran.

The society allocated a budget of less than 40,000 dollars for the game, which took about three years to complete.