Russia to deliver Iran’s S-300 soon: Lavrov

“Preparations for the delivery are underway and the deal will be effected soon,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Thursday.
 
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the high-level “Security and Stability in the SCO Region” conference in the Russian capital city of Moscow.
 
The remarks came two days after Vladimir Kozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military-technical cooperation, announced that Moscow will begin the system’s shipment to Iran by 2016.
 
He also stated that Moscow is modernizing some parts of the system and changing contract terms such as the pricing.
 
“The Iranians want them as soon as possible, and we are trying too. There is activity to prepare new legal contracts, new conditions and thus prepare systems for delivery,” Kozhin went on to say.
 
Meantime, Yan Novikov, the general director of Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey, also confirmed that Moscow will abide by the S-300 contract with Tehran, saying nothing stands in the way of the delivery of the defense systems..
 
“All restrictions have been lifted by the political authorities. When there is a contract, we will supply the system, including to Iran," Novikov pointed out.
 
On April 2, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries - the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne. The mutual understanding prompted Putin to sign a presidential decree for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense system to Iran.
 
This is while Moscow had banned the delivery of the S-300 system to Tehran in 2010 under pressure from the United States and its allies.