Putin's Spokesman: Timing for S-300 Delivery Uncertain as Iran Has Not Paid

The spokesperson for the Russian presidency emphasized on Thursday, February 17, that the date for the delivery of the S-300 missile system to Iran is not clear because Tehran has not yet made any payment. According to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, Dmitry Peskov stated, "It is too early to mention a specific time, and no date has been set yet. There are payment issues. They (the Iranians) have not made any payments to date." The Kremlin spokesperson did not indicate whether this issue was discussed during the recent meeting between Hossein Dehghan, Iran's Minister of Defense, and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. In response to a question from Itar-Tass about whether the delivery of the S-300 is on the agenda, he stated, "Various military-technical cooperation issues have been discussed." A day before Peskov's remarks, the Russian Ministry of Defense denied reports from some Tehran media about the delivery of this system to Iran on Thursday. Some Tehran newspapers reported today that the system is to be loaded at the Astrakhan port and sent to Iran via the Caspian Sea. A senior official from the Russian Ministry of Defense told the TASS news agency on Wednesday, "Since Iran has not paid the amount specified in the contract by February 16, the delivery of the first batch of S-300 missile systems is not possible." Meanwhile, Hossein Dehghan stated last week, without mentioning the financial issues between Tehran and Moscow, that on Iranian state television, "The S-300 systems are ready and even packaged... We will receive part of it in the first quarter of this year and the rest by the first half of next year." Iran and Russia signed a contract in 2007 for the delivery of five S-300 defense systems to Tehran, but Dmitry Medvedev, the then-President of Russia, suspended the contract in 2010 due to international sanctions. Moscow claims that after the cancellation of this contract, it returned Iran's $800 million payment. However, Tehran filed a complaint against Russia in an international court, seeking $4 billion in damages. Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on selling the S-300 to Iran this spring, after which the two countries began negotiations to update the system and for additional payments from Iran. Tehran must pay $900 million for the updated system, which is $100 million more than the previous contract. Russia is also set to train "80 Iranian military specialists" to work with the S-300 system. At the same time, Russian officials announced that Tehran has withdrawn its complaint for compensation from Moscow. The S-300 missile system can target aircraft at an altitude of 30 kilometers and at a distance of 150 kilometers, with the capability to track 100 targets simultaneously.