Contract on S-300 to be drafted within month - Iranian defense minister

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The contract on supplies of Russian S-300 air defense missile systems will be drafted within a month and implemented by the end of the year, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said Thursday after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu. "The agreement [in the military cooperation sphere] is a recognized base for expansion of our cooperation," Dehghan said. "We agreed [with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu] that within a short period we will bring the agreement to the practical sphere. We discussed the issue with the S-300 system, both sides showed determination, said that they have the will for implementation of the contract," he said. "We agreed that within one month, all aspects connected with the contract will be discussed. The contract will be drafted and fulfilled by the end of the year," the Iranian minister said. Putin's decree to lift ban on S-300 supplies to Iran On Monday, April 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to lift the ban on S-300 deliveries to Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday Russia’s voluntary embargo on deliveries of S-300 missile systems to Iran is no longer needed due to progress in the resolution of the situation around Iran’s nuclear program. Lavrov said that initially, the decision to suspend the implementation of the contract, which was already signed and came into force, was made in September 2010 to support consolidated efforts of the six international negotiators on Iran’s nuclear program to stimulate a maximally constructive process of talks. This year, Lavrov said, the six international negotiators (P5+1), after a regular round of talks with Iran, stated on April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, "substantial progress in settling [the problem around] Iran’s nuclear program." The P5+1 is the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France - plus Germany. Prospective deal in Iran-P5+1 talks Iran says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, but Western powers led by the United States claim Tehran's eventual aim is to create nuclear weapons. At a meeting in Vienna in November 2014, the P5+1 and Tehran agreed to extend the deadline for a deal in the talks on Iran’s nuclear program to June 30, 2015. The latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Lausanne ended April 2 with the conclusion of a joint comprehensive action plan on the Iranian nuclear program, to be adopted by June 30. As the plan is being implemented, all political and economic sanctions are to be lifted from Tehran. Meanwhile, on April 9 media quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as saying that if sanctions are not lifted first, Iran will not sign the nuclear deal with the six international negotiators. Read more