S-300 Delivery Not to Affect Nuclear Talks: Iran’s Zarif
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed on Wednesday that Russia's decision to deliver S-300 defense missile system to Iran would have no impact on the talks between Tehran and world powers over its peaceful nuclear program.
During his visit to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Wednesday, Zarif described the decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift the ban on the S-300 missile system delivery to Iran as “the right decision”.
Putin issued a decree that lifts the ban "on transit through Russian territory, including airlift, and the export from the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also the transfer to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the territory of the Russian Federation, both by sea and by air, of air defense missile systems S-300," RIA Novosti reported on Monday.
Zarif also reiterated that Moscow’s decision would have no impact on the ongoing nuclear talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
The two sides are in talks to hammer out a lasting accord that would end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran's peaceful nuclear energy program.
On April 2, Tehran and the sextet reached a framework nuclear agreement after more than a week of intensive negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal until the end of June.
