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Commotion around supplying S-300 to Iran perplexing — Russian Foreign Ministry

Supplying such weapons does not contradict the existing UN Security Council arms embargo regime, head of the Department for non-proliferation and weapons control at the Russian Foreign Ministry says

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Supplying S-300 missiles to Iran is fully in line with the arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council on Tehran, head of the Department for non-proliferation and weapons control at the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Ulyanov told journalists on Friday.

"The commotion around this decision is perplexing personally for me. Halting S-300 supplies to Iran was our national decision," Ulyanov said. "The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council No. 1929 does not prohibit missile defense. That is, supplying such weapons is fully in line with the existing arms embargo regime and does not contradict it," he added.

"Western colleagues got used to us making some significant gestures, and started to take it for granted," the diplomat said. "If we review our decision, it is met with shock, [it is] not clear why," he noted.

"If the Iranian side can sue [Russia] for $4 billion, this is not taken into account. It looks like the West proceeds from the assumption that Russia should act to its own detriment in order to get others to like it [Russia]," Ulyanov said. "The S-300 system is exclusively defensive, it threatens no one. The commotion around it is perplexing. All this goes against normal human logic," he stressed.