Russia lifts ban on delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran

The Kremlin lifted its self-imposed ban on the delivery of a powerful missile air-defense system to Iran on Monday, stoking sharp criticism from the White House and Israel and casting fresh doubt on the international effort to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported.

US lawmakers seized on Moscow’s announcement Monday to warn Russia was among a host of foreign countries using the prospect of a nuclear deal to begin seeking out lucrative business deals that could bolster Iran’s military and economy.

Any delivery of an air-defense system would complicate airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israel or the US should the diplomatic track fail.

Iran thinks that Russia will deliver the missile system this year, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the Interfax news agency in Moscow on Tuesday.

The US Senate is set to vote this week on legislation that would provide Congress with the power to approve, amend or kill any agreement that seeks to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.

Supporters of the bill, Republican and Democrat, said Russia’s lifting of its ban on the S-300 surface-to-air missile system could be just the beginning of countries testing the sanctions regime and a United Nations arms embargo on Iran.

“Before a final nuclear deal is even reached, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has started to demolish international sanctions and ignore the U.N. arms embargo,” said Sen.Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), who sponsored legislation that seeks to impose new sanctions on Iran if a final deal isn’t reached by June 30.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the defensive systems didn’t come under the U.N. arms embargo, and that Russia implemented the S-300 ban voluntarily. “This was done in the spirit of good will to stimulate progress in the negotiations,” he said, adding that it was no longer necessary.

The State Department also said that the embargo imposed on Iran in 2010 didn’t prevent the delivery of S-300s. But the White House warned that the missile system, while defensive, could enhance Iran’s ability to challenge key U.S. allies in the Middle East, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.

It said that Secretary of State John Kerryraised the issue with Mr. Lavrov on Monday.

Still, the Obama administration was measured in its criticism, noting that it didn’t believe the proposed missile sale would jeopardize the nuclear negotiations.

The White House has been aggressively lobbying Capitol Hill not to pass new sanctions or the proposed oversight bill while negotiations are ongoing.

US officials have warned such legislation could give Iran a pretext to walk away from the talks and ramp up its nuclear activities.

“We think given Iran’s destabilizing actions in the region, in places like Yemen or Syria or Lebanon, that this isn’t the time to be selling these kind of systems to them,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. But she added: “We don’t think this will have an impact on unity in terms of inside the negotiating room.”

Russia signed a contract with Iran worth roughly $800 million in 2007 to deliver an S-300 defense installation—a mobile, long-range system that can detect and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft.

But the US and Israel pushed the Kremlin to drop the deal, expressing concern that Tehran could use the system to protect its nuclear facilities from attack.

Russia relented and in 2010, then-President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree prohibiting the delivery. The order brought Russia in line with UN Security Council sanctions passed that year, which established a broader arms embargo on Iran but did not ban the delivery of ground-to-air missiles.

The move also helped pressure Iran to re-engage in negotiations, which resulted in a historic framework deal early this month.

Despite tensions elsewhere, the US and Russia have continued to cooperate on the nuclear talks. White House press secretary Josh Earnest pointed to Russia’s recent endorsement of the administration’s fact sheet explaining the terms of the framework deal, which Iranian leaders have publicly challenged.

“That underscores the kind of unity around the specific agreement that we believe has been critical to our success,” Mr Earnest said.

President Barack Obama warned over the weekend of “the possibility of backsliding” before the June 30 deadline.

On Monday, Mr Putin removed the ban on delivering a defensive missile system, though Russia hasn’t announced the completion of any new contract.

“At this stage, we believe the need for this kind of embargo, and a separate voluntary Russian embargo, has completely disappeared,” Mr Lavrov said Monday, citing the recent progress in nuclear talks. He called the missile system “exclusively of a defensive nature” and said it “doesn’t threaten the security of any governments in the region, including, of course, Israel.”

But Israel disagreed, casting the Kremlin’s move as illustrating the legitimacy Iran is gaining from a nuclear deal, which Israeli leaders have called ill-advised.

“It’s proof that the economic momentum that will come for Iran after lifting sanctions will be exploited for an arms buildup and not for the welfare of the people of Iran,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

The Kremlin’s reversal comes a little over two months before the six world powers—the US, China, Germany, France, the UK and Russia — are to hammer out the final details of a deal with Iran.

Ms Harf said the US sees the S-300 as separate from the nuclear issue, adding that the US and Russia have been in “lockstep” in negotiations even while disagreeing on other issues.

Iran’s defense minister praised the lifting of the ban as an example of the potential of improved relations with Russia. “Extra-regional threats and the spread of terrorism by (insurgent) groups have increased the need to further expand cooperation,” Brig Gen Hossein Dehqan said, according to the official IRNA news agency.