Tehran says S-300 missile system being shipped to Iran

Russia is shipping S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said here on Monday.

"The agreement for the delivery of S-300 systems has been finalized over the past months and they are being shipped to Iran," Ansari told a weekly press conference.

Iran and Russia have diversified their cooperation, and both countries have "remarkable" political and defense cooperation, he said.

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 cancelled the contract in line with a resolution of the United Nations Security Council, which banned the supply of conventional weapons to Iran.

Iran, in response, submitted a 4-billion-dollar claim against Russia to an international arbitration court in Geneva.

In early April last year, 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.

Iran withdrew the lawsuit against Russia after the latter agreed to supply the S-300 missile systems. Endit