Russia: 1st S-300 Missile System to Be Loaded to Iran
Local Editor
Russia will begin the first shipment of its S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran in the coming days, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday.
"I don't know if this will happen today, but they [S-300 missiles] will be loaded [for shipment to Iran]," the agency quoted Zamir Kabulov, a department chief at the Foreign Ministry, as saying.
In mid-February, the official had said that Moscow would deliver the surface-to-air missile systems to the Islamic Republic in "the nearest time."
Russia committed to delivering the systems to Iran under a USD 800-million deal in 2007. Moscow, however, refused to deliver the systems to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The sanctions barred hi-tech weapons sales to Tehran.
In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a previous ban on the delivery of S-300 to Iran, and in November last year, Russia signed a new contract to supply Iran with the systems by the end of that year for the first time since the 2010 freeze on supplies under the Security Council resolutions.
Recent pledges to make the delivery came after Iran and the P5+1 states - Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany - reached a landmark agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on Tehran's nuclear program in July last year.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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