Iranian officials have voiced growing irritation at Russia’s failure so far to supply the S-300 missile system, which Israel and the United States do not want Tehran to have.
Moscow, which is under Western pressure to distance itself from Iran over a long-running dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, has not followed through on proposals to ship the missiles to Iran.
“The reason for the delay in the delivery of the S-300missile defence system is the Americans’ and Israelis’ pressures on Russia ... while the Russians have no problem in this regard,” said Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari, quoted by Mehr News Agency.
He spoke a day after another senior military official, Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan Mansourian, said Iran could take legal action if Russia refused to fulfil its “commitments” to deliver the system to the Islamic state. Mansourian is deputy head of Iran’s air defences.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Russia last month for not providing the S-300 to Iran. Like Israel, Washington has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The West suspects Iran is seeking to build nuclear bombs. Tehran says it only seeks to generate electricity.
The truck-mounted S-300PMU1, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. It can fire at targets up to 150 km away. Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security council, has backed three sets of mild sanctions on Iran since 2006 over its nuclear work. But it has so far blocked any strong measures against its traditional ally.
With cutting-edge anti-missile systems and two new submarines that can carry nuclear weapons, Israel is readying anew generation of armaments designed to defend itself against distant Iran as well as Tehran’s proxy armies on its borders.
Having failed to crush Hamas’ firepower in its Gaza offensive last winter, or Hizbullah’s in its 2006 war in Lebanon, Israel is turning to an increasingly sophisticated mix of defensive technology.
A system that can unleash a metallic cloud to shoot down incoming rockets in the skies over Gaza or Lebanon has already been successful.
Meanwhile, Germany’s foreign minister said on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran would not be acceptable and that patience was limited on finding a solution to a nuclear fuel deal with the Islamic Republic.
“A nuclear armed Iran is not acceptable,” Guido Westerwelle told a news conference. “Our patience is not going to last for ever,” he said, referring to negotiations between major powers and Iran over its nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at atomic bomb-making capability. Iran denies this.