RUSSIA:Russia has no plans to sell its advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, a Russian government agency said yesterday.
"The issue of supplying Iran with S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, raised by mass media, is not on the agenda, is not being considered and is not being discussed with the Iranian side at the moment," Russia's federal military and technical co-operation service said on its website.
Iranian defence minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Wednesday that Russia had agreed to sell the system to Iran.
"The S-300 system, under a contract signed in the past with Russia, will be delivered to Iran," Mr Najjar told Fars News Agency, without giving details. "The timing of the delivery . . . will be announced later," he added.
S-300 missiles are longer-ranging than the Tor-M1 surface-to-air missiles which Russia, in a deal criticised by the West, earlier this year said it had delivered to the Iran under a $1 billion (€680 million) contract.
The US and Israel have said Iran could use the Tor-M1 system to attack its neighbours. Russia says the short-range system is purely defensive.
Iran is under UN sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work, but they do not ban conventional weapons sales. -