[Peace-discuss] Missiles sales to Iran

[Morton K. Brussel]

The following story reminds me of what occurred during the Vietnam  
war: The USSR, or China, could have provided the (North) Vietnamese  
with weapons/missiles which could well have deterred U.S. air and Navy  
attacks, but didn't. --mkb

August 20, 2009
Israel Cites Progress in Halting Missile Sale to Iran

By ELLEN BARRY
MOSCOW — The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, said Wednesday that his  
Russian counterpart, Dmitri A. Medvedev, had promised to reconsider  
its plans to provide advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran, a deal  
that Washington has also sought to halt. The missiles would offer Iran  
considerable confidence that it could prevent air strikes on its  
nuclear sites.

But a Russian official close to the talks, speaking on condition of  
anonymity because of their sensitivity, said the contract between  
Russia and Iran was not discussed. Mr. Peres did raise the issue of  
the missiles, known as s-300s, the official said, but Mr. Peres  
stressed that Israel did not plan any military strikes on Iranian  
territory.

“Accordingly, there was no discussion on the presidential level of any  
contractual obligations of Russian organizations regarding the  
provision of military equipment to Iran,” the official said.

Russia signed a contract with Iran to deliver S-300 missiles, which  
have a much longer range and higher accuracy than Iran’s present air  
defense systems. But amid the objections of Israel and the United  
States, Moscow has never delivered the missiles.

Mr. Peres spoke about the missiles at a morning news conference in the  
Black Sea resort of Sochi, after talks with Mr. Medvedev there. He  
said the Russian president “gave a promise he will reconsider the  
sales of the S-300 because this affects the delicate balance which  
exists already in the Middle East, and will enforce, in my judgment,  
the aggressive intentions of Iran.”

Israel and many Western nations suspect that Iran is seeking a nuclear  
weapon, while Iran says its nuclear program is solely for generating  
electricity. Israel has repeated raised the possibility of air strikes  
to halt Iran’s nuclear progress.

Tabling the missile deal has been one of the United States’ goals in  
its pursuit of improved relations with Moscow.

At the news conference, Mr. Peres suggested that Russian concession on  
the missile contract could affect American plans for missile defense  
in Eastern Europe, which Russia objects to.

“If it wouldn’t be for the Iranian missiles, maybe one of the thorny  
issues between Russia and United States would disappear, namely the  
antimissile bases that the United States is building in Poland” and  
the Czech Republic, Mr. Peres said.

When asked about the missile contract in March, at a news conference  
with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Russian foreign  
minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that Russia would seriously consider  
American and Israeli concerns.

He said Russia supplied only “nondestabilizing defensive types of  
weapons” and, in a reference to the United States’ military assistance  
to Georgia, added that “we want our partners to behave with equal  
restraint in their military supplies to the countries who quite  
recently used those weapons close to our borders.”

Speaking anonymously to the Interfax news service around the same  
time, a Russian official said the missile sale to Iran could be  
postponed.

“A decision on this issue should be made at the political level,  
because the contract has moved outside the purely commercial  
framework,” the official said.


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