Kremlin Denies Russia Snubbed Iran on S-400

Date: 31 May 2019 - 21:36

News ID: ۶۶۵۷۸

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected a Bloomberg report that Russia had allegedly refused to supply S-400 air defense systems to Iran.
"I do not have such information,” Peskov told reporters in response to a relevant question.
He called for careful verification of such reports. "We must be very careful about information,” Peskov said.
Russia’s Sputnik news agency said it had learned from its source on Friday that Tehran and Moscow were currently not discussing S-400 supplies to Iran.
The S-400 is an advanced air and missile defense system intended to engage targets at ranges of up to 400 kilometers (249 miles).
Bloomberg cited two unnamed people with alleged knowledge of the matter as saying that Russia had rejected an Iranian request to buy S-400 missile defense systems, concerned that the sale would stoke more tension in the Middle East.
The request was rebuffed by President Vladimir Putin, possibly during Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif’s visit to Moscow May 7, it claimed.
Russia and Iran have enjoyed close political and military ties in recent years.
Russia is one of the countries defending the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which the U.S. abandoned last year before reimposing a host of sanctions on the Iranian economy.
The two countries have also helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regain control of most of the country following eight years of war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.