Today's visit to Moscow by the Iranian Defense Minister, Hossein Dehgan, was devoted to the further development of military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran,during which he held talks with President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
As a result of these negotiations, Dehgan stressed that Russian-Iranian military-technical cooperation will continue at a new level. "Russia is our partner, we collaborate on this basis with Russia, and this cooperation will continue. We give priority to ensuring those things that give us an opportunity for superiority, as well as the possibility to create a situation of resistance to those threats that are in the region and beyond it,'' he said after the end of the two meetings in an interview for Russia-24.
According to a senior representative of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Iran is particularly interested in purchasing a batch of the multifunctional fighters Su-30CM. "Iran has really expressed interest in the purchase of a batch of Su-30CM, however, the parties are discussing this issue at negotiations. The contract won't be signed during the ongoing visit of the Iranian military authorities to Moscow," RIA Novosti cites him as saying.
Sergey Shoigu noted that the two countries intend to coordinate cooperation on a wide range of issues – both regional and global. "The long-term relations between two our countries have a high level of confidence,'' he said, welcoming the lifting of the sanctions against Iran, as "such a development takes on the greatest urgency in the conditions of the growing crisis in the Middle East region."
In an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies Vladimir Sazhin drew attention to the long history of military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran.
"During the previous Iranian regime under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Soviet Union assisted in strengthening the armed forces of Iran, supplying artillery systems, armored vehicles and other equipment. After the Islamic Revolution, especially after the 90s, relations between Russia and Iran developed very successfully in the military-technical sphere – we supplied combat MiG-29 aircraft and submarines," he recalled.
Then military technical cooperation was halted "after Iran began to develop its nuclear program.
"When the UN imposed corresponding sanctions against Iran, Russia halted cooperation with Iran. Now, after issue of the Iranian nuclear program was resolved, sanctions have been lifted and Russia has resumed relations in the defense sphere. Last year the Russian defense minister visited Iran. Certainly, Iran needs new weapons and military equipment very much now, as the sanctions regime closed its inflow and the republic was engaged in import substitution in the military sphere.
However, Iran has no roots or long history of producing weapons, so it was difficult at that time and the only thing they could do was to copy the available old patterns, especially Russian, Soviet, American and North Korean. As a result, Iranian models of weapons were PR, as the source materials are always better than copies, even modernized ones,'' Vladimir Sazhin said.
