Moscow not care about Washington’s concern over S-300 delivery to Tehran

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Russia’s top diplomat has said his country doesn’t care about the United States’ unilateral sanctions against Iran over the delivery of the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system to the Islamic Republic.

“The U.S. sanctions are no concern of ours,” Sergei Lavrov said on August 19, emphasizing that Moscow stands only by its own international commitments, Press TV reported.

This came as Washington voiced concern a day earlier over delivery of the S-300 missiles to the Islamic Republic.

John Kirby, U.S. State Department spokesman, said that Washington is concerned about the delivery of the defense system to Tehran despite the fact the move does not violate any UN Security Council resolutions.

“We’ve been making very clearly our objections to any sale of this missile system to Iran, as I said, for quite some time, and we’ll continue to monitor it closely,” Kirby said.

He further claimed that Washington needs more details on the issue in order to check it for compliance with the U.S. measures against Iran.

Lavrov said however said with regard to sanctions, this is the decision of the UN Security Council.

“All other unilateral restrictions imposed bypassing the Security Council in violation of the general norms of the international law is of no interest to us," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in mid-April to lift a ban on the supply of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran.

The decision to deliver the missile systems came after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in Lausanne on April 2.

The recent nuclear deal between P5+1 and Iran, made it easier for the two countries to realize the delivery of missiles.

RIA Novosti quoted Russian president's special representative for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying on August 19 that Tehran and Moscow have reached clarity on the issue of supply of S-300 missiles to Iran.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan also announced on August 18 that a delegation of Iranian officials are set to travel to the Russian capital city of Moscow next week to sign a new contract on the Russian-built S-300 air defense system.

Under the $800 million contract signed in 2007 by the two countries, Russia was to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran. However, it cancelled the contract in the wake of UN sanctions.

In turn, Tehran went as far as filing a $4 billion lawsuit against Russia’s intermediary agency for exports and imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services, Rosoboron export with Geneva's arbitration court. Iran said it has no intention to withdraw the lawsuit until it receives the missile systems.

A while ago, Vladimir Kozhin, President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military and technical cooperation said Moscow is working to upgrade the S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system it plans to deliver to Iran.