Iran will seek compensation for breach of S-300 missile deal

[Lankan Ranger]

Iran will seek compensation for breach of S-300 missile deal

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran will never give up its rights to seek compensation for the breach of a defense agreement by an unidentified party which is apparently Russia.

“The defense contract we have with the country which has been deceived by the U.S. is still valid. The Iranian nation will not give up its rights to seek compensation for the damages caused (by the revocation of the deal)’” Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

Russia has recently refused to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran on the pretext that the deal which has been sighed in 2007 contradicts the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.

“Certain countries that are under the influence of the Satan suppose if they unilaterally revoke their defense agreements with Iran, Iran will lose… but they should know if they don’t deliver a few missiles to Iran, Iran will not give in to (their demands) and the Iranian nation is capable enough to produce the power to overwhelm them in their palaces,” Ahmadinejad stated.

“One time the U.S. and the former Soviet Union united to undermine the Iranian nation, but the Iranian nation gave them a lesson that they will never forget, let alone now that they are not considered a power compared with the Iranian nation,” he asserted.

Ahmadinejad also pointed to the upcoming talks between Iran and six major world powers and said, “We have always favored negotiation, but they have adopted four sanctions against Iran.”

After the adoption of the first sanctions resolution, they adopted three harsher resolutions to hinder the progress of the Iranian nation, but after five months from the adoption of the new round of sanctions which was to hobble Iran’s economy, nothing special has happened, he said.

“Now they have made a request for holding negotiation with Iran in a situation that they are like an unarmed person, because they have shot all their arrows. But Iran is fully armed,” he added.

tehran times : Ahmadinejad: Iran will seek compensation for breach of S-300 missile deal

 

[Qasibr]

The strategic balance has shifted. Used to be that you'd buy Russian if the US did not favor you and it's allies wouldn't sell to you. Now, Russia is vying to be a US ally, and US influence can make them not sell to you.

In the bigger picture, China seems to be a more effective counter-weight to the US, but in the short run they would not want to upset the US too much. Their S-300 equivilant HQ-9 variants really pissed the Russians off too. It wouldn't be easy(with the US trying to exert their influence) but it might be possible for Iran to obtain this stuff. China didn't stiff Pakistan up when the US didn't approve of it's transferring nuclear energy technology to set up power reactors to solve the energy crisis here. I doubt if they would have gone back on their contracts to deliver S-300s like Russia did under US pressure with Iran, or their failure to deliver MiG-31s or Yakhont missiles to Syria.