Iran Mulls Substituting S-300 This Year: Defense Min.

Tehran, April 18, IRNA – Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday that his ministry is considering plans to produce a system to substitute the S-300 defense system. Vahidi made the point while talking to reporters after the grand military parade held near the mausoleum of the late Imam Khomeini downtown here to commemorate Iran’s National Army Day. Vahidi said the plan has had favorable outcomes and the news about it will be released later this Iranian year (to end March 20, 2013). Referring to the unfulfilled promises made by the country which originally produced S-300, the defense minister said the Iranian officials are following up the issue. Talking about the Zionist regime, Vahidi said, that illegitimate regime is suffering from the total isolation that mostly happened after the successful nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 (the US, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany) in Istanbul on April 14. About the UAE baseless claims over Iran’s southern islands, the defense minister stressed that the islands of Abu Musa, Lesser and Greater Tunbs in the Persian Gulf are absolutely an inseparable part of the Iranian land./end