TEHRAN, August 25. /TASS/. Tehran doesn’t have the need to buy Russia’s S-400 Triumph air defense missile systems, the country’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said on Thursday.
"We have created a three-level air defense system. Until recently we needed the long range air defense systems. Now, with the purchase of Russia’s S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, we don’t need this anymore," the defense minister stressed.
Iran is not going to buy any other systems, Dehghan said. "We can make everything what Iran needs [in air defense]," he added, explaining that Iran’s Bavar-373 long-range mobile air defense system, believed to be an equivalent of Russia's S-300 systems, will become operational by the year-end.
Last week, the defense minister said Iran expected Russia to complete the delivery of the S-300 (NATO reporting name: SA-10 Grumble) surface-to-air missile systems within a month.
Iran signed a contract with Russia on the supply of the S-300 missile defense systems in 2007, but its implementation was put on hold due to UN Security Council Resolution 1929 of June 2010, which banned the transfer of advanced armament to Tehran, including missiles and missile systems. In April last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the embargo on the S-300’s delivery to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the contract came into effect in November of the same year.