MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will supply S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran this year, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqhan told journalists Wednesday.
Speaking before his departure for Moscow, Dehqhan said that a contract for Russian missile system deliveries will be signed during his visit to the country, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
On Monday, the Kremlin press service said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree to lift a ban on sales of S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic republic.
A source in the Iranian defense ministry told Sputnik earlier that Dehqhan would discuss conditions for S-300 deliveries, stalled five years ago due to extended UN restrictions. The UN Security council put curbs on arms trade with Iran over suspicion that the country might be developing nuclear weapons.
Following Russia's refusal to supply five S-300 systems, Iran filed a $4-billion lawsuit with an arbitration court in Geneva against the Russian state-run arms exporter, Rosoboronexport. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday that the republic would drop the case as soon as it gets the missiles.
