July 22, 2016
Iran has finally received the missiles from Russia that provide the spear point of the S-300 air defense system Moscow first shipped to Iran three months ago, the Tasnim news agency reported Monday.
Tasnim did not, however, say whether Iran had withdrawn its suit against Russia in an international arbitration court.
The two countries have been battling over the S-300 delivery for six years. Iran ordered the S-300 in 2007. But in 2010, Russia canceled the sale unilaterally, saying it could not deliver the S-300 because of a UN ban. However, US officials had said earlier that the UN ban on weapons sales had been carefully written at Russian insistence so as to exclude the S-300.
Iran then sued Russia in an arbitration court in Geneva for a reported $4 billion for violating the contract.
In April 2015, Russia agreed to re-instate the contract and deliver the S-300 to Iran. But Russia demanded that Iran withdraw the suit before the deliveries would begin. Iran in turn, reportedly said it would not withdraw the suit until it started getting the S-300.
In an apparent compromise, Russia began delivering the S-300 system without any missiles on April 11. It is widely assumed the compromise provided for Russia to send everything but the missiles without the suit being withdrawn and the missiles after the suit was withdrawn.
But there has not yet been any word on the suit from either Moscow or Tehran.
The original contract was for the S-300-PMU1. But Russia ceased manufacturing that version when it started the S-300-PMU2 version. Tasnim said the new missiles show Iran is getting the PMU2 version.
