Tehran received the first batch of cargo under the contract for the supply of Russian S-300 air defense systems to the country. As stated by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, despite repeated delays, the deal will be implemented in full.

The S-300 anti-aircraft missile system of an air defense unit during an exercise. July 2015 (Photo: Donat Sorokin/TASS)

The first batch of equipment under the contract for the supply of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia has arrived in Iran. The official representative of the country's Foreign Ministry, Jaberi Ansari, stated this at a briefing, reports . Mehr agency

“We have already announced that despite repeated changes in delivery times, the deal is progressing, and today I have to announce that the first part of this equipment has arrived in Iran, with other parts continuing to be delivered,” Ansari said.

A source in structures related to arms exports told Interfax about the delivery of the first batch of S-300s to Iran. “We have begun the practical implementation of the Iranian contract, the first batch of S-300 systems has been sent to the customer,” the agency’s interlocutor said. However, he did not specify how many systems he was talking about.

The source added that the contract is planned to be completed in full by the end of 2016; another agency interlocutor added that the delivery of the S-300 began in March.

Another source told the agency that the first regiment of Russian S-300s will go on combat duty in Iran’s air defense system this summer. He clarified that the training of Iranian specialists is currently being completed.

A contract for the supply of five S-300 PMU-1 divisions consisting of 40 launchers to Iran for about $800 million was concluded in 2007, but they were never transferred to Tehran. In 2010, when Dmitry Medvedev was President of Russia, the deal was blocked. Iran tried to challenge this decision in the Geneva arbitration court; the amount of claims against Rosoboronexport amounted to $4 billion.

At the beginning of July 2015, the Six countries and Iran signed an agreement to resolve the nuclear issue. Even before the final solution to the problem, on April 13, 2015, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lifting the ban on the supply of S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then explained that Moscow blocked the supply of these air defense systems to Iran unilaterally as a gesture of goodwill, since none of the UN resolutions obligated it to do this. In connection with the agreement on the main parameters of the nuclear deal, which Iran and the Six countries reached on April 2 in Lausanne, there is no need for an embargo on the supply of air defense systems, Lavrov said then.

After signing the presidential decree, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the lifting of the embargo closes the issue of the lawsuit that Tehran filed in an arbitration court in Switzerland. Russia signed a new contract for the supply of S-300 air defense systems to Iran in early November. At the beginning of January 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia had received guarantees from Iran to withdraw the claim against Russia .

In February 2016, the head of the second Asian department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Zamir Kabulov, said that Tehran was also showing interest in the supply of Russian S-400 air defense systems , but negotiations on this issue had not yet begun.

Russia delivered the first batch of S-300s to Iran