Iran to Drop Lawsuit against Russia over S-300 Delivery: Source
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran plans to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against Russian arms firm Rosoboronexport over the long-overdue delivery of S-300 air defense system to the Islamic Republic, media reports said on Wednesday.
"The parties agreed that the lawsuit against Rosoboronexport, which Iran submitted to the Geneva court, with the requirement to pay a penalty amounting to nearly 4 billion dollars, will be withdrawn," Interfax quoted an informed source as saying on Wednesday.
According to the report, the source made the remarks on the sidelines of MAKS-2015 air show underway out of Moscow, and added that the lawsuit can be withdrawn before the signing of a new contract for the sale of Antey-2500 systems to Iran.
“Today it is a technical procedural matter already,” the source said.
The source also said that the decision for dropping the lawsuit against Russia came after Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan made an official visit to Moscow in April this year.
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.
Back in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to lift the ban on the S-300 missile system delivery to Iran.