Iran to Drop Court Case against Russia Once S-300 Missile Systems Delivered
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran will recall its legal suit against Russia as soon as the earlier ordered S-300 missile defense systems are delivered, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said Tuesday.
"I hope that the anti-missile defense systems will be delivered by the end of the year and, naturally, as soon as the systems are delivered to Iran, the case will be dropped," Sputnik quoted Shamkhani as saying during a security conference in Moscow.
Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 defense system batteries.
In 2010, then-president Dmitry Medvedev cancelled the contract as he came under strong US and Israeli pressure not to go ahead with the sale of the weapons system, but his pretext was that the sale was covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.
Later, Iran lodged a $4 billion lawsuit at an international court in Geneva against Russia's arms export agency which is now pending review.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday decided to lift the ban on the S-300 missile system delivery to Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the ban had become obsolete, citing the progress which Russia, the United States and four other world powers achieved at the talks with Iran on its nuclear energy program earlier this month.