Defense minister's visit may remove problems in Russia-Iran arms trade - analyst

MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax-AVN) — A planned visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Tehran is expected to help resolve problems that have built up in arms trade between the two countries, according to the head of the Strategies and Technologies Analysis Center.

“The issue of military technological cooperation will, of course, be raised during the defense minister’s visit to Iran. Unfortunately, a lot of problems have accumulated there as the Russian side has more than once let its Iranian partners down and renounced contracts that were signed. The last time this happened was in 2010 when, because of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, Russia refused to meet its commitments under a contract to supply Iran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems,” Ruslan Pukhov said.

For this reason, “one can’t expect any large-scale military technological cooperation with Iran in any foreseeable future because the Iranians feel betrayed and insulted,” he said.

“Russia’s refusal in 2010, in compliance with Resolution No. 1929 of the UN Security Council, to implement an earlier contract to supply Iran with six batteries of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems had a further negative effect on the climate in bilateral military technological cooperation. That decision was criticized by Iranian leaders and media and resulted in Iranian lawsuits against the Russian side, which remain unsettled,” Pukhov said.

“This doesn’t mean that there won’t be local projects, for example exports of radar equipment designed and manufactured by the Almaz-Antey company or means of electronic warfare produced by the KRET corporation,” he said. Besides, there might be joint dual-use technology projects such as projects in telecommunications or remote Earth sensing.

“As regards combat systems, I think Iran will rely on its own development and on China,” Pukhov said.