The News Minute | February 24, 2015 | 7:45 am IST
Russia has offered Iran its Antey-2500 missile defence system, a modified version of the S-300 missiles which Moscow had previously declined to provide Tehran due to international sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
"Tehran is now considering the offer," TASS news agency quoted Sergei Chemezov, chief executive officer of Rostec Corp. as saying on Monday.
"As far as Iran is concerned, we offered the Antey-2500 instead of S-300. They are thinking about it. No decision has been made yet," Chemezov added, according to the Moscow Times.
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Chemezov explained that the Antey-2500 missile defence system is a modified version of the S-300 that Russia is obliged to provide to Iran under a contract signed in 2007.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already addressed this issue with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, but Moscow has made the deal conditional on Tehran withdrawing the lawsuit it brought against Moscow in 2010 for the cancellation of the S-300 contract.
Recently, the defence ministers of Iran, Hossein Dehgan, and Russia, Sergei Shoigu, signed in Tehran a military cooperation agreement to combat terrorism and extremism.
IANS