WORLD / Middle East
Iran receives Russian defense missiles
(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-25 08:54
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian officials said Wednesday that they have taken
delivery of advanced Russian air defense missile systems - weapons
intended, according to one Russian news agency, to defend Tehran's major
nuclear facilities.
A Russian-made TOR-M1 is pictured here. Russian Defence Minister Sergei
Ivanov has said that Russia has completed delivery of TOR-M1
surface-to-air missile defence systems to Iran. [AFP]
Announcement of the delivery of the Tor-M1 mobile missile launchers came
as Iran launched three days of military maneuvers, its first since the UN
Security Council approved sanctions against Iran on Dec. 23.
"We have had constructive defense transactions with Russia and we
purchased Tor-M1 missiles that were recently delivered to us," the
official Web site of Iranian state television quoted Minister of Defense
Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying.
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Najjar did not say how many missiles were delivered or when they arrived.
Previously Moscow said it would supply 29 of the mobile surface-to-air
missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December
2005, Russian media has reported.
In New York, spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, Richard
Grenell, called the development "troublesome given that Iran is the
leading state sponsor of terror in the world."
"It certainly isn't an appropriate signal to be sending a government
which is under UN sanctions for trying to develop a nuclear weapon,"
Grenell said.
According to Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency, the weapons were expected to
be used to protect major government and military installations such the
nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Bushehr, Tehran and in eastern Iran.
ITAR-Tass on Tuesday quoted Sergei Chemezov, the head of the country's
state-run weapons exporter as saying that the Tor-M1 missiles had been
delivered before the end of December 2006.
It is not clear whether the sale was completed before the Security
Council vote. Russian officials have repeatedly said the sale would not
violate any international obligations.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, current president of the Security
Council, did not explicitly confirm the handover. But he said "whatever
deliveries may have been carried out," they had "nothing to do" with the
UN sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment.
The United States last year called for a halt to international arms
exports to Iran, and for an end to nuclear cooperation with Iran to
pressure it to stop uranium enrichment. Israel has also criticized arms
deals with Iran.
Iran denies US accusations that it is using its nuclear power program as
a cover to develop nuclear weapons. On Monday, Tehran conducted missile
tests and said it had barred 38 UN nuclear inspectors from entering the
country.
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