Iran: S-300 ban will dismay Russians

Iran warns that Russia’s decision to ban the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 missile system to the country will negatively influence Russian public opinion.

After continuous delays and mixed signals regarding the delivery of the defense system, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree on Wednesday prohibiting the delivery of the missile system to Iran.

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow, Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, said Russia’s decision to ban the delivery was a “political measure,” adding that the move had two consequences for Moscow.

“The first one is a negative impact on Russian public opinion. The Russian people would wonder why the US has managed to strike agreements with Middle East countries to sell them arms worth more than $125 billion, but Russia is restricting its already limited market and loses the income as well as job opportunities,” IRNA quoted the envoy as saying on Friday.

The ambassador said that the second consequence was Russia’s reneging on its agreement with Iran.

Sajjadi added that through supporting the US against Iran, Russia had in fact rushed to “save” US President Barack Obama, whose party has only a slim chance of winning the mid-term congressional elections and is facing challenges regarding the Israel-Palestinian issue.

On June 9, the UN Security Council (UNSC) imposed a US-engineered sanctions resolution against Iran over allegations that Tehran’s nuclear program is military in nature.

After the resolution was passed, Moscow said that it was not obliged to drop the S-300 deal with Iran, since it was not referenced in the UNSC resolution.

Moscow later claimed that upon further study of the sanctions resolution, it was freezing the delivery.

Iran criticized Russia, saying that since Resolution 1929 does not specifically ban the delivery of defensive missiles, Moscow has no excuse for refusing to commit to the deal.

Iran has been trying to obtain the sophisticated S-300 defense system to improve its deterrence power in the light of Israeli war rhetoric.