‘Russia should deliver S-300s to Iran’ - Gayo Lues

Ebrahim Aqa-Mohammadi, member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Saturday the issue of delivering the S-300 system to Iran has nothing to do with UN resolutions.

“Russia should accept that the existing sanctions against Iran have not been imposed by the United Nations, but have been imposed on Iran by the US and Europe,” Majlis official news agency, ICANA, quoted him as saying.

Referring to recent remarks by Igor Korotchenko, director of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade, who advised Russia to resume exporting the defense system to Iran, the lawmaker added that since Russia’s foreign policy has changed under President Vladimir Putin, Iran hopes Moscow will deliver the S-300 defense system.

Aqa-Mohammadi emphasized that the contract for delivering the S-300 defense system should not be affected by illegal sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union against Iran.

“Russia should understand this reality and not refrain from delivering the S-300 missile system to Tehran,” he added.

In an interview with RIA Novosti news agency on July 7, Korotchenko called on Moscow to sell the S-300 defense system to Iran, arguing that the move does not run counter to any UN mandates.

Earlier in July, Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Tehran’s 2011 complaint against Russia lodged with the International Court of Justice over Moscow’s refusal to ship the S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic is being reviewed by relevant international legal bodies.

Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air-defense systems.

Russia has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext that the system is covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council resolutions against Iran.

SS/HGH/IS