Despite a ban on arms shipments to Iran under international sanctions, Russia appears willing to proceed with the sale of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the regime — in a development triggering objections from the Obama administration, Fox News reported on Wednesday.
“We have long expressed our concerns over reports of the possible sale of this missile system to the Iranians,” U.S. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told Fox News.
Russia, along with the U.S. and others, was a party to the recently struck Iran nuclear deal, which keeps the arms embargo in place for five more years. A State Department official told Fox News this specific S-300 missile system is not technically prohibited under United Nations sanctions or the nuclear agreement. But the department does not want the sale to proceed.
“We certainly object to it,” department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Reuters first reported that Tehran plans to sign the contract for four of the S-300 Russian missiles as soon as next week.
“The text of the contract is ready and our friends will go to Russia next week to sign the contract,” the Iranian regime’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan reportedly said.
When asked to characterize the capability of Russia’s S-300 air defense system, a U.S. defense official with knowledge of Russia’s weapons systems told Fox News, “This is a very capable weapons system that can bring down U.S. or Israeli jet aircraft.”
The Obama administration has made its objections known before. When Russia first announced its plans to proceed with the sale in April, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, “The United States has previously made known our objections to that sale, and I understand that Secretary Kerry had an opportunity to raise these concerns once again in a recent conversation with his Russian counterpart.”
The announcement comes at a time when Russia and the Iranian regime appear to have grown their diplomatic and military ties in the weeks following the nuclear accord struck July 14 in Vienna.
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