August 19, 2016
Iran has dropped its suit against Moscow for failing to deliver the Russian S-300 air defense system years ago.
Iran has been silent on the suit. But Russia last week said the suit “has now been removed from the agenda,” which certainly would not
be done if the suit were still a live issue before the Arbitration Court in Geneva.
Russia, meanwhile, said last week that it has now delivered half of the S-300 systems that Iran is buying. It earlier said the full buy would be delivered to Iran before the end of 2016.
Last week, Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan told RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, “The issue of the withdrawal of the S-300 lawsuit has been repeatedly commented on by official representatives of the Russian Federation and has now been removed from the agenda.”
It was odd phraseology that presumably was chosen because some hardliners in Iran opposed withdrawing the suit until all the S-300s were delivered. The Russians initially had demanded that the suit be withdrawn before any S-300 was delivered.
In April, Russia delivered vehicles that are part of the system—but no missiles. The first missiles came two months later. It is widely assumed the suit was withdrawn in the period after the first vehicles arrived and before the first missiles, but no one has said anything about the timing.
The contract was signed in 2007. But in 2010, Russia said it would not deliver the weapons because of UN sanctions. However, US officials earlier said the UN ban on arms sales to Iran was carefully worded at Russian insistence to exclude the S-300. In 2011, Iran sued Russia for a reported $4 billion for breaking the contract. In April 2015, Russia re-instituted the S-300 contract. The two countries than began squabbling over withdrawal of the suit.