Source:
KommersantRussia is preparing to sell to Iran anti-aircraft missile systems S-300, Iran’s defense minister said on Wednesday. This will be Russia’s second major contract with Iran on air defense systems in the recent years. Analysts say that Russia is thus countering plans of the United States for military interventions in the Middle East.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Wednesday that the contract with Russia would deliver to Iran S-300 systems under a timetable to be announced soon. Russian arms trader Rosoboronexport and contract’s executor Antey-Almaz did not comment on the statement but did not refute it either. Sources of Kommersant said that Russia has agreed to sell to Iran five S-300PMU-1 complexes worth $800 million. A source in the military industry reported that the contract had not been signed yet but talks were in a final stage. He, however, said that S-300PMU-1 might as well be sold to Iran from the arsenal of the Russian armed forces after necessary updates.
Teheran hosted last week a session of the Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on military and technical cooperation where Mikhail Dmitriev, head of the Federal Military and Technical Cooperation Service, made it clear that Russia was set to carry on cooperating with Iran in this field and added that this was necessary to preserve balance of forces in the region.
Contacts between Russia and Iran in military and technical cooperation got a major boost in early 2004 when Teheran asked Moscow’s help in creating a missile defense system. Moscow suggested using S-300PMU-1 systems for defense of the capital city and four other regions including industrial center Isfahan, main naval base in Bander Abbas (the Persian Gulf), the nuclear plant in Bushehr and oil terminals in Abadan and Khorramshar.
Read more:
http://www.kommersant.com:80/p840222/Iran_Air_Defense_S-300/