[jwplayer mediaid=”51687″]
President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran is already bearing fruit — in Moscow’s coffers and for Tehran’s air defenses:
Russia and Iran have signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, Sergei Chemezov, the chief executive of Russian state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying on Monday.
“S-300, the air defense system, the contract has already been signed,” Chemezov was quoted as saying at the Dubai Airshow.
A nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers earlier this deal has put Israel and Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchies on edge: They fear Tehran’s rapprochement with the West will allow it to pursue an expansionist agenda in the region.
Chemezov said Gulf countries had no reason to feel threatened by the deal.
“This is defence equipment. And we are ready to offer this defense equipment to any country,” Chemezov later told Reuters in Dubai, speaking through interpreters.
“So if the Gulf countries are not going to attack Iran … why should they be threatened? Because this is defense equipment.”
Is it just me, or does Chemezov sound a little… defensive? Russia’s very own Nathan Thurm, you might say.
The S-300 is Russia’s second-best anti-aircraft missile (the newer S-400 is a advanced derivative), first deployed in 1978. Don’t let the age fool you though — the S-300 has received numerous upgrades over the years, and Iran is believed to be receiving “a modernized version,” according to the Jerusalem Post. You would prefer to have stealth fighters to safely beat the S-300, but neither Israel nor any of the Arab Gulf states currently posses any fifth generation jets.
Iran’s nuclear program will become more secure than ever — all thanks to Barack Obama and John Kerry’s largess.
The State Department does not currently believe that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization despite the military organization’s efforts to procure nuclear materials and conduct terrorist operations across the globe, according to a State Department official who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
Obama administration officials last week were hesitant to address the issue during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. When asked to clarify its position on the corps, a State Department official told the Free Beacon that now is not the time to formally designate the military group as a terrorist organization.
When would be a good time to formally designate the military group as a terrorist organization?
Would a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv do it?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member