Negotiations Still Underway on Delivery of S-300 Missile System: Spokeswoman

Iran and Russia are in talks on the previous contract, Iran’s lawsuit against Moscow, and the mechanisms for the delivery of S-300 missile systems, Afkham said in her weekly press conference here in Tehran.

Her remarks came a couple of days after Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi told the Sputnik News Agency that the ongoing negotiations on the missile system are currently moving in the right direction.

"We touched upon the issue of (introducing) amendments to the contract, the new prices to be set, and discussed the mechanism of the lawsuit withdrawal," the diplomat said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported that when the lawsuit is out of the way, Moscow and Tehran will sign a deal for the delivery of a better member of the large S-300 family, the Antey-2500.

In 2007, Russia and Iran signed an $800 million deal for the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems. It was terminated by the then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 after the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Iran.

In reaction to Russia’s refusal to deliver the system, Iran filed a $4 billion lawsuit against Rosoboronexport at the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in Geneva.

In February 2015, Russia offered to deliver Antey-2500 systems instead of the S-300 since the former are not covered by the embargo.

After the team of international negotiators and Tehran reached a framework agreement on Iran's nuclear energy program, Russian President Vladimir Putin overturned Medvedev's decision lifting the ban on the S-300 deliveries.

The recent reports came as earlier this month Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country will soon deliver the S-300 air defense system to Iran.

"The supplies of Russia’s S-300 air defense system to Iran is due soon," he told the media following talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on June 4.