First part of Russian S-300 delivered to Iran

Russia has begun fulfilling a contract with Iran on the delivery of S-300 air defense systems, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

"This contract is being completed and is being paid for. The delivery is under way and there will be other contracts after this one," RIA Novosti cited him as saying.

"We refused to deliver this S-300 system and Iran made a decision to file a serious lawsuit against us. This lawsuit didn't really move ahead and no deliveries were made. Now we have secured the settlement of this dispute through lengthy, complicated and delicate negotiations – as they say, the East is a subtle thing," he told the Russia-24 TV news channel.

The contract on the delivery of the S-300 was signed in 2007, but it was suspended after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran. Iran filed a lawsuit to the International Court of Arbitration against Russia. After an international deal was concluded on the Iranian nuclear program in April 2015, Vladimir Putin lifted a ban on the S-300 delivery.

A senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Sazhin, told a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that the beginning of the S-300 delivery to Iran shows a serious advancement of Russian-Iranian cooperation.

"For practically five years the problem of the S-300 worsened relations between Russia and Iran. Of course, the fact that Iran and the group of international mediators adopted a joint comprehensive plan of action to address the Iranian nuclear problem contributed to the resolution of the conflict. Iran is gradually emerging from international economic and political isolation," the expert noted.

Sazhin also said that the air defense systems, which will be sent to Iran, were originally intended for Syria, but this could not be implemented because of the civil war. "First, these complexes will be tested at our landfills in the presence of Iranian experts and then will be sent to Iran by the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of 2016 a group of Iranian troops amounting to 80 people will arrive in Russia to be trained in our training centers within 4 months," a senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.

The closure of this issue opens up serious prospects in military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran, the expert said. "Russia, which has solved this complex issue in time, has a slight advantage in the fight for the Iranian market of arms and military equipment," he said.

Sazhin warned that the supply of specific types of equipment may take a long time, because it is a long process. "But the talks on cooperation in the areas that are currently not welcomed by the international community, but can be implemented in the future when the embargo will be lifted, may be started soon," the expert concluded.

2nd Rank State Councillor, an expert of the Russian Security Council Scientific Council, Stanislav Ivanov, in his turn, noted that Russia, starting the delivery of the S-300, was able to recover undermined confidence from the Iranian side. He also stated about quite broad prospects for the development of trade with Iran.

"Now, when Tehran eliminated its nuclear program, there is an opportunity to supply defensive and other types of weapons without restrictions," the expert said.

However, Ivanov said that now, when the situation in the Middle East continues to be extremely tense, we need to carefully consider all aspects of possible agreements on the supply of arms. It is also necessary to make efforts for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

"Thus, the delivery of S-300 to Iran will strengthen the defense potential and increase the security facilities of the country," Stanislav Ivanov summed up.