Russia delivers half of S-300 missile systems to Iran

Russia has delivered half of the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran in accordance with a weapon sales contract signed between the two countries in 2007, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

Rogozin made the statement on Monday at the Russia-Iran-Azerbaijan summit in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, Xinhua news agency reported.

The 2007 weapon sales contract between Russia and Iran is valued at about $900 million.

Russia is planning to complete the deliveries of the S-300 air defence systems to Iran by the end of 2016, said Sergei Chemezov, head of Russia's state technologies corporation Rostec. The organisation was established in 2007 to promote development, production and export of high-tech industrial products for civil and defence sectors.

Russia suspended the 2007 contract with Iran in 2010, citing a UN Security Council resolution that placed an arms embargo on Tehran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the delivery ban in April 2015 shortly after Iran and world powers reached a framework nuclear agreement to remove all economic sanctions on Iran.

The S-300 is a series of highly capable, long-range surface-to-air missile complexes first deployed in the former Soviet Union in 1979 and later modified by the Russian armed forces.

--IANS

sm/ksk/vt