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Russia to receive compensation from France on Mistral deal

Xinhua, July 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russia and France have agreed on the settlement terms of the contract on delivery of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, presidential aide Vladimir Kozhin said Thursday.

"The talks are over and the time and money issues have been settled," Kozhin said.

"I hope that an agreement on the contract termination will be signed very soon, and we will be able to announce the sum that France will pay us," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kozhin as saying.

France suspended indefinitely the delivery of the first of two Mistrals to Russia last November because of the continued Ukraine crisis and Russia's alleged role in supporting independence- seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

France has been under pressure from its Western allies to scrap the 1.2-billion-euro (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) contract signed in 2011.

Meanwhile, Kozhin also announced that Russia would deliver a modernized S-300 air defense system to Iran.

The Iranian customers especially asked for the S-300 system, of which certain elements are still being updated, Kozhin said.

In early April, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to lift the ban on sales of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems after Iran and six world powers, including Russia, reached a framework accord on parameters of Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Moscow and Teheran signed an 800-million-U.S. dollar contract in 2007 to supply Iran with five S-300 systems.

In September 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev canceled the contract to comply with a resolution of the UN Security Council, which banned the supply of conventional weapons to Iran.

As a vocal opponent of the Iran nuclear deal signed in June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was assured during a telephone conversation with Putin earlier in the day that the Iranian nuclear deal is the effective and reliable guarantee of the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

The two leaders also called on all relevant parties to join efforts to fight against the Islamic State terrorist group.

According to an online transcript released by the Kremlin, Putin expressed certainty that the successful implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal will "strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime and positively affect the security and stability of the Middle East region." Endite