TEHRAN, March 8. /TASS/. Tehran’s new defense purchases from Russia have nothing to do with the nuclear deal Iran had sealed with the six major world powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday.
"The country’s new military purchases from Russia are in no way a breach of the July 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers (known as JCPOA)," the TASNIM news agency cited the general as saying.
Denouncing the U.S. propaganda campaign aimed against strengthening military ties of Russia and Iran, Jazayeri said that Washington considered Tehran’s any step that ran counter to the U.S. interests as a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In February, Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State Mark Toner told TASS that Russia’s decision to sell Su-30SM fighter jets to Iran would violate the UN-imposed restrictions on weapons supplies to Tehran. And the UN Security Council should approve a separate resolution.
"UN Security Council Resolution 2231 prohibits the sale to Iran of specified categories of conventional arms ... without approval in advance on a case-by-case basis by the UN Security Council," he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response that "Resolution 2231 provides for the permission-based procedure of supplying military products to Iran by means of obtaining consent of the UN Security Council. This rule is set for the period until 2020."
"There are no longer any direct restrictions on cooperation with Iran in the military-technical sphere that existed during the sanctions regime that has become history," she said. "This concerns, for example, supplies to Iran of weapons in seven categories covered by the UN Register of Conventional Arms (battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers).".