Russia has moved quickly to intensify its ties with Iran following the nuclear proto-deal reached at the beginning of the month. Other than officially recognizing that it’s engaged in an oil-for-goods program with the Islamic Republic, President Putin also rescinded the country’s five-year voluntary ban on delivering the S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.
Enacted in 2010 under President Medvedev, the move was seen by many to be a sign of good faith in supporting Russia’s Western partners that were sanctioning Iran more heavily at the time. Putin’s latest move has caused panic in Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are absolutely opposed to the shipment of any weapons systems, no matter how defensive, to their arch-enemy. Adding a deeper layer to things, the Iranian Defense Minister is visiting Moscow this week.
In an article entitled “Why Russia Ended its Ban on Selling Advanced Air Defense Systems to Iran” by Matthew Bodner and carried by The Moscow Times, the author writes: “Russia's decision this week to lift a self-imposed embargo on selling powerful S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran is likely an attempt to turn the Middle Eastern country into a major new market for Russian arms exports”.
Andrei Fyodorov, former deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, director, Center for political research foundation (studio guest), Paul Grenier, an independent writer in the U.S, who worked for the Pentagon, State Department and World Bank as a Russian interpreter (Washington) and Ben Hartman, political commentator, The Jerusalem Post, commented on the issue.
Andrei Fyodorov: Iran will receive the S-300 at the end of the year, it’s technically possible and what is more important is that is only one part of the deal, because we have already a frozen package of deals which is valued at about 2 Billion Dollars. And S-300 is only a small part of the deal, about 400 Million dollars. But we have requests from Iran to delivery of new tanks, submarines, etc. Iran is now refreshing economic ties with Russia and we are coming back to the construction of the railway around the Caspian sea by RZhD and many other things. People are only concentrated on the S-300 issue, because for Israel it is a shock because it changes the whole strategy of Israel’s General Staff.
Andrew Korybko: Can the US stop the delivery of the S-300?
Paul Grenier: It’s clear that folks in Washington who wanted sanctions and wanted to punish Russia don’t know what to do now. Sanctions are not a response from Russia to the West, as this S-300 contract was made before that. I think in the future there’s going to be a calculus that has to include the Iranians as well as the Russians because there’s going to be a lot of pressure put on Iran as well, because the whole point of this exercise from the point of view of some people on US and Israel, is to make Iran essentially more vulnerable, less able to defend itself and sanctions have been imposed on Iran for many years in order to force this.
Andrew Korybko: What’s the Israeli perspective on the delivery of the S-300 missiles to Iran?
Ben Hartman: This is a game changer sort of weapon that could change the facts in the ground. Of course, the ability of being more aggressive in the military policy and foreign policy, the idea of anti-aircraft missiles, it’s a defensive weapon, but the idea is that a defensive weapon of this sort would, under cover, pursue more aggression potentially to prevent an Israeli attack. It makes Iran more dangerous, cementing the possibility of that they will become a country with nuclear weapons. So in Israel, it’s something that keeps people worried.
