Russia Returns Iran's Advancement Payment after Breaching S-300 Contract
News number: 9102111207 17:07 | 2012-05-08
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9102111207

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian official announced on Tuesday that Moscow has
returned Iran's advancement payment along with its interest fees after it
refused to deliver S-300 air-defense systems to Iran in compliance with the
two countries' contract.

"The main payment and its interest was returned to Iran by the Russian
side," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said in his weekly
press conference in Tehran today.

"A paragraph had been foreseen in the contract for compensation," he
explained, saying that based on international laws, any country which
breaches its contract terms with another state should pay indemnity.

The International Court of Arbitration settles international commercial
disputes and since the Russian company (responsible for the S-300 contract)
is non-governmental, Iran filed a complaint with the court in order to
compensate for its losses.

Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at
least five S-300 air-defense systems.

However, Moscow's continued delays in delivering the defense system drew
criticism from the Islamic Republic on several occasions.

Russia has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext
that the system is covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council
resolutions against Iran.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree in September 2010
prohibiting the sale of S-300 missile systems to Iran, citing restrictions
under sanctions the UN Security Council imposed on Tehran in June over its
nuclear activities.

Iran dismissed Russia's justification that the ban on the delivery of the
S-300 missile system to Iran was in line with the (US-engineered) UN
Security Council Resolution 1929, and stated that this is an air defense
system which is not included in Resolution 1929.

On June 9, 2010, the UN Security Council (UNSC) imposed a US-engineered
sanctions resolution against Iran over allegations that Tehran's nuclear
program is military in nature.

After the resolution was passed, Moscow said that it was not obliged to drop
the S-300 deal with Iran, since it was not referenced in the UNSC
resolution.

But after Washington's continued pressures, Moscow later claimed that upon
further study of the sanctions resolution, it was freezing the delivery.

Iran criticized Russia, saying that since Resolution 1929 does not
specifically ban the delivery of defensive missiles, Moscow has no excuse
for refusing to commit to the deal.