Russia opens way for air defense deliveries to Iran

President Vladimir Putin opened the way Monday for Russia's delivery of a sophisticated air-defense missile system to Iran, a move that would significantly bolster the Islamic Republic's military capability.

Russia signed the $800 million contract to sell Iran the S-300 missile system in 2007, but suspended delivery three years later because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. Putin lifted that ban.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the phone Monday to discuss Iran-related issues, the situation in Syria, Yemen and other issues, the Foreign Ministry said.

Speaking in a televised statement, Lavrov said that a preliminary agreement on settling the Iranian nuclear standoff reached earlier this month made the 2010 Russian ban unnecessary.

“The S-300 is exclusively a defensive weapon, which can't serve offensive purposes and will not jeopardize the security of any country, including, of course, Israel,” he said.

The deal reached earlier this month by Iran and six world powers, the so-called P5+1, is intended to significantly restrict Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons while giving it relief from international sanctions. The agreement is supposed to be finalized by June 30, but there is no firm agreement yet on how or when to lift the international sanctions.

In 2010, Russia linked its decision to freeze the missiles' delivery to the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Iran over its nuclear program, but Lavrov argued Monday that the Russian move was voluntary and not directly required by the U.N. resolutions.

“It was done in the spirit of good will in order to encourage progress in talks,” Lavrov said. “We are convinced that at this stage there is no longer need for such an embargo, specifically for a separate, voluntary Russian embargo.”

Iran responded to the 2010 Russian ban by filing a lawsuit with a court in Geneva seeking $4 billion in damages for breach of contract, but the court has not issued a ruling.

Lavrov said that Russia had to take into account “commercial and reputational” issues linked to freezing the contract.

“Because of the suspension of the contract, Russia has failed to receive significant funds,” he said. “We see no need to continue doing that.”

The timing of the missile deliveries could be related to Russia’s gloomy economic picture. Earlier this month, the World Bank forecast that the Russian economy would contract 3.8 percent in 2015.

“We need to think about the future of our trade partnership [with Iran],” Andrei A. Klimov, the deputy chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s Senate, told the New York Times. “We don’t want to wait for anybody else. It is a kind of competition, if you like.”

Lavrov did not say when Moscow could deliver the missiles. Russian officials previously said that the specific model of the S-300 that Russia was to deliver under the 2007 contract is no longer produced, and offered Iran a modified version of it called Antey-2500.

A senior government official said separately that Russia has started supplying grain, equipment and construction materials to Iran in exchange for crude oil under a barter deal.

Sources told Reuters more than a year ago that a deal worth up to $20 billion was being discussed and would involve Russia buying up to 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day.

Officials from the two countries have issued contradictory statements since then on whether a deal has been signed, but Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday that one was already being implemented.

“I wanted to draw your attention to the rolling out of the oil-for-goods deal, which is on a very significant scale,” Ryabkov told a briefing with members of the upper house of parliament on the talks with Iran.

“In exchange for Iranian crude oil supplies, we are delivering certain products. This is not banned or limited under the current sanctions regime.”

Iran is the third largest buyer of Russian wheat, and Moscow and Tehran have been discussing the oil-for-goods barter deal for more than a year.

Though Moscow said it believes its action on Monday does not signal any sort of reversal of its commitment to an international sanctions regime against Iran, it could be a signal that Moscow believes the framework for a final deal with Tehran on its nuclear program has now been reached, and that it may be taking steps to prepare for normalized relations.

Leonid Ivashov, a retired Russian general who now heads the Centre for Geo-Political Analysis, a Moscow-based think-tank, said the move was part of a race for future contracts in Iran.

“If we now delay and leave Iran waiting, then tomorrow, when sanctions are fully lifted, Washington and its allies will get Iran's large market,” RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

Ryabkov suggested Russia had high hopes that its steady support for Iran would pay off in energy cooperation once international sanctions against Tehran are lifted.

In the last year, Russia and China, also a member of the P5+1, have engaged Iran with either economic and military cooperation, and analysts have said that the sanctions in place on Iran may have a sell-by date, and that they could collapse if any of the P5+1 nations negotiating with Iran think that Tehran had been denied an acceptable deal.

Israel, the primary international critic of a nuclear deal with Iran, reacted sharply to Monday’s announcement, saying it meant that the recent framework agreement in Switzerland amounted to granting Tehran “legitimacy.”

“This is a direct result of the legitimacy that Iran is receiving from the nuclear deal that is being prepared, and proof that the Iranian economic growth which follows the lifting of sanctions will be exploited for arming itself and not for the welfare of the Iranian people,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement.

The U.S. and Israel had lobbied Russia to block the missile sale before it did so in 2010, saying the S-300 system could be used to shield Iran's nuclear facilities from possible future air strikes.

Al Jazeera and wire services