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Report: Putin freezes S-300 missile transfer to Iran

March 7, 2016 at 9:44 am

Russian President Vladimir Putin froze the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran on Sunday after receiving evidence from Israel that Tehran had transferred advanced weapons to Hezbollah, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

According to the channel, Israel provided Russia with evidence confirming that Iran had repeatedly attempted to transfer the SA-22 Greyhound short-range air defence system to the group.

Russia and Iran signed an $800 million contract for the delivery of five S-300 batteries in 2007. But in 2010, Russia’s then-president Dmitry Medvedev banned the supply of the systems to Tehran amid escalating global sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran filed a $4 billion lawsuit in the Court of Arbitration in Geneva over breach of the contract.

In April 2015, shortly after the announcement of the Lausanne outline for the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, Putin lifted the ban on S-300 deliveries to Tehran.