Iran received Russian weapon. Belarus under suspicion
- 29.07.2008, 14:29
Iran has received first components of Russian S-300 ground-to-air radar systems. As The Cutting Edge News reports referring to its sources, they are still disassembled in boxes and undeployed. It’s not impossible that the weapon has been delivered via Belarus.
As The Cutting Edge News reports referring to reliable sources, they are still disassembled in boxes and undeployed.
In the meantime, the situation around S-300 radar systems is more than knotty, and experts’ forecasts on possible terms of their installation vary much, Lenta.ru notes.
So, according to Pentagon’s information, the Iranians will not be receiving that Russian anti-aircraft system this year. Israel in its turn says the anti-aircraft batteries can be delivered by Russia by September of this year and then be installed and prepared for combat duty within 6–12 months.
According to Israeli military officials, S-300s would be delivered by September via Belarus. The official Minsk refutes this information.
At the same time, according to information of Russian sources of The Cutting Edge News, as many as five batteries were recently delivered to Iran, these having been pulled from active Russia defense units. The transaction is thought to be valued at USD800 million.
It should be reminded that Irani minister of defence Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said in the end of 2007 about purchase of 5 S-300 systems. However, there is no official information about the contract.
It should be noted that possible S-300 delivery is a key factor in Israel’s pre-emptive Iran strike strategy.
The Israeli Air Forces are supposed to have tested the strengths and weaknesses of a similar S-300 system during military exercises over Crete with the cooperation of Greece.
Israel also takes into consideration that Iran possesses 29 Tor M1 air defense short range missile systems which were delivered in 2007. They provider protection of the most important state and military objects, in first turn the nuclear ones in Esfahan and Bushehr in the east of the country.