MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin on Monday opened the way 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.
No timetable was announced for the sale of the five S-300 missile systems, but Putin's decree took immediate effect with his signature, the Kremlin news service said. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, said the missile system could be shipped to Iran at any moment.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry objected to Moscow's decision in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the White House indicated that the move could endanger plans to ultimately lift sanctions on Iran as part of a proposed nuclear deal.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said unity and coordination with nations like Russia is critical to the success of the negotiations.
"I do think it's safe to say that Russia understands that the United States certainly takes very seriously the safety and security of our allies in the region," Earnest said.
Washington has said Moscow played a constructive role in the Iranian nuclear talks, despite sharp differences between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Putin's move was quickly welcomed by Tehran, while it worried Israel, which saw it as a sign that Iran already had begun to cash in on the emerging nuclear deal with world powers that is expected to be finalized by the end of June.
Russia signed the $800 million contract to sell Iran the S-300 missile systems in 2007 but suspended their delivery three years later under Russian President Dmitry Medvedev because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. Putin on Monday lifted ban.
Lavrov hailed the lifting of the S-300 delivery ban as the result of progress at the nuclear negotiations that began more than a year ago and culminated with the April 2 announcement in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The nuclear framework agreement reached by Iran and six world powers -- Russia, the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, China and Germany -- is intended to significantly restrict Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons while giving it relief from international sanctions. The agreement is scheduled to be finalized by June 30, and there is no firm agreement yet on how or when to lift the international sanctions on Iran.
Iran has long denied that it seeks to gain a nuclear weapon, claiming it is pursuing a nuclear capability for peaceful purposes, like power generation and medical treatments.
The preliminary agreement on settling the Iranian nuclear standoff made the 2010 Russian ban unnecessary, Lavrov said in a televised statement.
"In view of current events in the Middle East, modern air defense systems are crucial to Iran for defensive purposes," Lavrov said on Russia Today television. "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."
The S-300 missile system has a range of up to 125 miles and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously.
Deployed in big numbers, the system could provide a strong deterrent against any air attack.
"These systems won't make Iran invincible but they will significantly increase the cost of any military operation against it," said Vasily Kashin, a senior research fellow at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow. "It would require committing more forces and inevitably result in losses."
Kashin said the S-300 system isn't likely to be operational before 2017, long past the deadlines for Iran to comply with restrictions in a nuclear agreement.
Russian officials previously said 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 S-300VM, also called Antey-2500. Iranian officials were considering that option, the Tass news agency reported, quoting Sergei Chemezov, the head of arms maker Rostech.
Russia also could provide some S-300s from its own military arsenals, instead of manufacturing new missile systems for Iran.
The last S-300 delivery was to China in 2010, Russia Today television reported. The systems also have been operable in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Vietnam, the broadcast noted.
Israeli complaints
Israeli Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said the framework nuclear agreement helped legitimize Iran and cleared the way for Monday's announcement by Russia.
"As Iran rejects one clause after the other in the outlined deal that was announced last week, the international community has begun easing the restrictions on it," Steinitz, the minister for strategic affairs, said in a statement. "This is a direct result of the legitimacy Iran has received from the nuclear deal," he said, and proof "that the expected boost in Iran's economy which will follow the lifting of the sanctions will be used for arms and not for the well-being of the Iranian people.
"Instead of demanding of Iran to end the terror activity it is spreading throughout the Middle East and the world," Steinitz added, "it is being enabled to arm itself with advanced weapons that will only increase its aggression."
Israel has harshly criticized the U.S.-led nuclear deal, saying it would give Iran relief from sanctions while leaving its nuclear program largely intact. Israel believes that Iran still intends to develop a nuclear weapon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't specifically mention the Russian move Monday but poured scorn on the proposed nuclear agreement, saying that "Iran draws encouragement from the concessions that it is receiving from the major powers."
"It is a deal that leaves Iran in possession of the capability to arm itself with nuclear weapons, that fills its coffers with a lot of money and that not only enables it to continue its terrorism and aggression in the Middle East and around the world but does not even demand that it stop doing so," he said.
Moscow's plans to sell the S-300s to Iran long have been an irritant in Russian-Israeli relations. In recent years, Israel has refrained from providing sophisticated weapons to Georgia and Ukraine as part of an "understanding" with Russia that it not sell the s300s to Iran.
Iran hails Russian step
The missile sale was welcomed in Tehran as a diplomatic step forward.
"If Russia fulfills its commitment to deliver the S-300 missile system to Iran, it will be a step towards boosting the relations and collaborations between the two countries," the deputy defense minister, Reza Talaienik, told the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency on Monday. "It will be a step forward."
He added that the decision will "definitely help to strengthen Iran's ties and interactions with Russia."
Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan said Russia's decision to lift the ban reflected a "translation of political determination of leaders of both countries for improving and promoting cooperation levels in all fields," according to the official IRNA news agency as saying.
Back in 2010, Russia linked its decision to freeze the missiles' delivery to the sanctions United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 imposed on Iran over its nuclear program, but Lavrov argued Monday that the Russian move was voluntary and not directly required by the U.N. resolution.
"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 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" concerns 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."
Observers said the go-ahead on the S-300 deliveries could reflect Moscow's maneuvering to secure a niche in the Iranian market before other powers move in, as analysts expect something of a global trade rush if the sanctions against Iran are lifted.
"We need to think about the future of our trade partnership," said Andrei Klimov, the deputy chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Federation Council, Russia's Senate. "We don't want to wait for anybody else. It is a kind of competition, if you like."
Vladimir Sazhin, an expert on Iran with the Moscow-based Institute for Eastern Studies, said the move came "at the turning point, when the Iranian market is becoming a strong attraction."
"Preparation is already going on for the day when the sanctions are lifted and everyone will rush to Iran," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Russia and Iran have also enacted an oil-for-goods deal "on a very significant scale," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Russian upper house of the parliament, the Federation Council, in a briefing after the Lausanne agreement. Under that barter arrangement, Russia would buy 500,000 barrels of Iranian crude per day in exchange for deliveries of grain and manufactured goods, Ryabkov said.
The Russian decision also comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to head off moves by Congress to give itself authority to accept or reject a final nuclear deal with Iran.
The president had separate meetings at the White House on Monday with the heads of American-Jewish organizations and with Jewish political supporters and dispatched Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to the Capitol to give lawmakers classified briefings on the negotiations.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled today to consider bipartisan legislation to give Congress a say in approving an accord with Iran.
Information for this article was contributed by Vladimir Isachenkov, Lynn Berry, Josef Federman, Ian Deitch and Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press; by Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times; by Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times; and by Tony Halpin, Justin Sink, Henry Meyer and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 04/14/2015