Syria Crisis - Russia: "Resuming S-300 shipments to Iran may be a very timely decision."

Syria Crisis - Russia: "Resuming S-300 shipments to Iran may be a very timely decision."(Fars). Russian sources said the country is mulling over its 2010 decision on withholding the sales of the complicated S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran if it comes to lose its regional ally, Syria. Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air-defense systems. However, Moscow's continued delays in delivering the defense system drew criticism from the Islamic Republic on several occasions. Russia has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext that the system is covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council resolutions against Iran. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree prohibiting the sale of Russian weapons, including S-300s, to Iran in 2010 after the United Nations imposed sanctions against the Islamic republic. Iran dismissed Russia's justification that the ban on the delivery of the S-300 missile system to Iran was in line with the (US-engineered) UN Security Council Resolution 1929, and stated that this is an air defense system which is not included in Resolution 1929. Iran then sued Russia for breach of the contract and made Moscow return its advance payment along with its interest fees in May. "The S-300 ban was a political decision and these systems are not actually subject to sanctions," Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, said in an interview on Tuesday. "If the Syrian regime is changed by force or if Russia doesn't like the outcome" of a peaceful transition to a new government, "it most likely will respond by selling S-300s to Iran."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, along with his counterparts from the US, the UK, France and China, endorsed a United Nations plan for political transition in Syria on June 30. Lavrov said the road map doesn't imply Assad's ouster and Russia says it will continue to block efforts in the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Syria to force him out. Assad's government is fighting an insurrection backed up by the US, Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar which finance terrorist groups and equip them with arms, information and other logistical support. "The fall of the Syrian government would significantly increase the chances of a strike on Iran," said Pukhov, who also sits on a Defense Ministry advisory board. "Resuming S-300 shipments to Iran may be a very timely decision." Due to the export ban on S-300 exports to Iran Russia lost about $1 billion dollars, according to Pukhov's think tank. After Russia annulled the S-300 contract, Iran started making the advanced system domestically. Tehran's defense officials have announced that the early versions of the system will be unveiled as soon as next year.President Vladimir Putin may resume shipments to Iran in retaliation for the US selling weapons to Georgia and at the same time to promote Russia as an arms exporter, Pukhov said.Read the full story here.