Iran to get missile system from Russia

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071226/ts_nm/iran_russia_missile_dc

Wed Dec 26, 10:36 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia has agreed to sell an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a report likely to irritate the United States.

S-300 missiles are longer-ranging than the TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles which Russia, in a deal criticized by the West, earlier this year said it had delivered to the Islamic Republic under a $1 billion contract.

Iran is under U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work that Western powers suspect it wants to master so that it can build nuclear bombs, but they do not ban conventional weapons sales to the country.

"The S-300 system, under a contract signed in the past with Russia, will be delivered to Iran," Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told Fars News Agency, without giving details.

"The timing of the delivery ... will be announced later," he said. The ISNA news agency carried a similar report.

[angrycarpenter]

1. If they sold it to anyone else

it would hardly make the news. Russia is an arms supermarket for anyone with the cash. As for the president, it's just more stuff to blow up, no big deal.