RUSSIAN AND IRANIAN BOND GROWS!
December 28, 2003
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Even while Russian experts are now in Iran installing Russian TOR-M1 air defense batteries at Iran’s nuclear facil iti
es, another shipment of the new Russian S-300 air defense system is in the works to be shipped to Iran in the future.
Quite frankly, I was surprised the Russians would sell the S-300 air defense system to Iran. It is the absolute top of the line. I was involved in intelligence gathering in the sixties and seventies when the Soviets where launching various types of SS missiles
from their launch site at Turatam eastward toward their anti-missile site at Sary Shagon. The tests were designed to test the effectiveness of their anti-missiles against their own missiles. I watched the development and effectiveness of their anti-missile systems. Sometimes the anti-missiles from Sary Shagon hit the Turtam missiles, and sometimes they did not, but by the time I left the NSA they rarely missed. But I will assure you of this, there is no such animal as the ultimate anti-missile system. Once a new one comes out, in relatively short order a way will be found to get around it. The Russians would never sell a missile defense system to any country unless they had already developed a way to get around it. By the time Russia finally gets around to shipping the S-300 to Iran, and then installing it, the U.S. and Israel will have developed a way to get around it.
The TOR-M1 is designed to intercept “stealth” aircraft, helicopters and drones as well as laser-guided precision bombs, rockets and cruise missiles.
Traveling at a speed of 700 kph up to a range of 25km, it can destroy any of these incoming objects 12 km before they make contact with target.
The S-300 is a much more powerful and versatile weapon than the Tor-M1 missile systems now being installed, which were capable of hitting aerial targets flying at up to 6,000 meters. Particulars of the S-300 are included in the following Jerusalem Post article.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Iran announces arms deal with Russia
JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST
December 26, 2007
Russia is to supply Iran with new S-300 air defense systems, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Wednesday, a sign of growing military cooperation between Moscow and Teheran.
“The S-300 air defense system will be delivered to Iran on the basis of a contract signed with Russia in the past,” state television quoted Najjar as saying.
Najjar didn’t say when or how many of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense systems would be shipped to Iran.
Earlier this year, Russia delivered 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December 2005.
Russian officials wouldn’ t commen
t on the Iranian statement, but the Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified source in the Russian military-industrial complex as saying that a contract for the missiles delivery had been signed several years ago and envisaged the delivery of several dozen S-300 missile systems.
The S-300 is much more powerful and versatile weapon than the Tor-M1 missile systems supplied earlier which were capable of hitting aerial targets flying at up to 6,000 meters.
The S-300 is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of up to 150 kilometers and at altitudes of up to 27 kilometers. Russian military officials boast that it excels US Patriot missiles.
Rumors about the sale of S-300 missile systems to Iran have circulated for a long time, but Russian officials consistently denied it.
Military experts said that the S-300 missile systems could inflict a significant damage to the US or Israeli forces if they were to attack Iran.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran’s Bushehr reactor makes it unnecessary for Iran to continue to enrich uranium.
“We believe that Iran has no economic need to proceed with its program of uranium enrichment,” Lavrov told the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
“We are trying to persuade the Iranians that freezing the program is to their advantage as it would immediately lead to talks with all countries of the ‘six’, including the United States,” he added.
“Iran’s agreement to this proposal is in everyone’s interest,” Lavrov stated. Such talks, he said, would aim to once and for all remove suspicions that Iran’s nuclear program was anything other than peaceful.
Lavrov stressed that all activities at the Bushehr reactor would remain under international supervision.
“Our Iranian partners know that should there be the slightest deviation [from agreements], we will freeze our cooperation,” he said.
Lavrov’s statements mirrored those made last week by US President George W. Bush, who said that he supported the Russian fuel shipments, stating that they proved that Teheran had no need to enrich uranium.
“If the Russians are willing to do that, which I support, then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich. If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich,” Bush said.
Last week, senior Israeli diplomatic officials said that Moscow had no interest in seeing Iran gain an independent nuclear capability.
“The Russians are not naive,” one of the officials said, adding that Moscow wants to keep neighboring Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.
“Our difference is over tactics, not goals,” the official said.
He said this difference in tactics would become clear in January, when the UN is expected to adopt a third Security Council resolution sanctioning Iran for its ongoing uranium enrichment.
According to the official, the Russians will back about half of the items in the basket – the less serious ones – and not back others. The Chinese, the official said, are likely to back even fewer sanctions than the Russians.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
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