Iran, Russia presidents set to discuss military ties

ILNA: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will discuss military-technological cooperation with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.

The Iranian and Russian president plan to hold a bilateral meeting in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on September 13 on the upcoming sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) summit.

According to Peskov, Putin and Rouhani will discuss a range of issues including possible deliveries of S-300 anti-aircraft system and Russia’s proposal to Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control.

“Cooperation in the military sphere and the situation in Syria will be on the agenda,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

The Russian newspaper, Kommersant, reported on Wednesday that Moscow has agreed in principle to resume selling modified S-300 air defense missile systems to Tehran and constructing another unit of Bushehr’s nuclear power plant in southern Iran.

Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia undertook to provide Iran with at least five S-300 ground-to-air missile systems.

However, Moscow refused to deliver the systems to Iran under the pretext that they were covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council resolutions against Iran.

In September 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning the delivery of the defense systems to the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic contested the unilateral cancellation of the deal and the excuse made by Kremlin, arguing that the S-300 is a purely defensive system and irrelevant to the US-engineered sanctions.

Iran also filed a complaint against Russia’s state-run arms export company Rosoboronexport in the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva.
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