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Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Russia Confirms Missile Sale to Iran

MOSCOW - Russia has struck a deal to provide Iran with short-range, surface-to-air missiles, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday. He defended the deal, saying that the weapons system was purely defensive.

Russian media reported Friday that Russian and Iranian officials had signed various weapons contracts in November worth a billion dollars (euro850 million) that would send up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems to Iran over the next two years.

"A contract for the delivery of air defense Tor missile systems to Iran has indeed been signed," Ivanov said in comments broadcast by the state channel Rossiya, without giving further details.

"This is exclusively, 100 percent, defensive weaponry," he said, pointing out that the missiles could only strike targets in the air. "This unequivocally will not change the balance of forces in the region," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The reports of the missile sale prompted an immediate expression of concern from the U.S administration and in Israel, which considers Iran to be its biggest threat.

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