Iran likely to receive upgraded missile system from Russian Federation

Moscow had banned the delivery of the S-300 system to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement it signed with Iran in 2007 was covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions against the country over its nuclear program. Netanyahu has called the deal a “historic mistake”.

Putin assured Netanyahu that the deal would prevent the Islamic republic from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Carter said the nuclear agreement places “no limitations on what the Department of Defense can and will do to pursue our defense strategy” in the Middle East region.

Congress has two months in which to review the Vienna accord before voting to accept or reject it. Israel, which bitterly opposed negotiations with Iran from the outset, has been lobbying Congress for months in an attempt to block the deal.

House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D), told the Hill: “We’ll meet with Mr. Netanyahu, [and] I’m sure he will repeat his very deep concerns and the dangers he believes that the deal presents to Israel…We will speak to people in Israel who do not share his view”. While Russian Federation sells arms to some of Israel’s biggest adversaries, like Syria and Iran, its security ties with Israel have vastly improved.

The decision to deliver the missile system came after Iran and the US, France, Britain, China and Russian Federation plus Germany reached a mutual understanding on Iran’s nuclear programme in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 2.

Putin told Netanyahu the deal included “solid guarantees that the Iranian nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful” and that implementing it would “positively impact the security and stability of the Middle East”, according to a Kremlin statement.