Russia’s S-300 delivery to Iran will not impact N-talks: EU

Russia’s decision to lift a ban on the delivery of S-300 missile defense system to Iran will not affect the nuclear negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 countries, a European Union official says.

"We took note of the Russian decision to ship some air defense systems to Iran. This is not a new issue… The negotiations are still ongoing and we do not believe that will affect the ongoing negotiations,” Catherine Ray, an official representative of the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said Monday.

She added that political directors of Iran and the P5+1 countries plan to meet again this week on the sidelines of a UN anti-nuclear weapons conference in New York City as part of efforts to achieve a final deal by the end of June.

Ray added that the political directors of the P5+1 group, which comprises the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, will also meet within themselves in New York.

On April 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran.

The decision to lift the ban comes after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

The two sides ended their latest round of talks at the deputy and expert levels in Vienna, Austria, on April 24. The three-day talks were held with the goal of drafting the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) based on the mutual understanding reached in Lausanne.

Moscow had banned the delivery of the S-300 system to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement it signed with Iran in 2007 was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The resolution bars hi-tech weapons sales to the Islamic Republic.

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