Israel warns of repercussions from Russian missile sale to Iran
Defense officials confident IAF can handle threat
By YAAKOV KATZ and HERB KEINON the Jerusalem Post (print edition) 17
January 2007

Voicing extreme concern over Russia's recent sale of advanced anti-aircraft
mis­siles to Iran, senior diplo­matic and defense officials ;warned Moscow
Tuesday that the deal could have seri­ous security implications that would
even "get back to Russia."

Senior officials in Jerusalem said they "were not pleased" with the sale of
the anti-air­craft missiles, but that Russia was a sovereign country and
they could not intervene. They did, however, issue a warning: "We hope they
understand that this is a threat that could come back to them as well."

Earlier Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow had sent
air defense missiles to Teheran, the first high-level confirmation that
their delivery took place despite US complaints. Ivanov did not spec­ify how
many missile systems had been delivered.

"We have delivered short-range Tor-Mi missiles to Iran in accordance with
the contract," Ivanov told reporters.

The Tor-M1 is an advanced anti-aircraft system that can identify up to 48
targets and fire at two targets simultaneously, at altitudes of up to 6,000
meters.

Defense officials predicted the systems would be used to defend Iran's
nuclear facilities, particularly the uranium enrich­ment center at Natanz.
The offi­cials said that while the missiles were advanced and
"highly-capable," the Israel Air Force was "well-trained" and knew how to
deal with multiple and varied threats.

Russian officials previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the
sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a $700 million con­tract signed
in December 2005, according to Russian media reports.

"If the Iranian leadership has a desire to purchase more defen­sive weapons,
we would do that," Ivanov said, without elaborating.

The United States called on all countries last year to stop all arms exports
to Iran, as well as end all nuclear cooperation with it, to pressure Teheran
to halt uranium enrichment.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel "would be concerned at any
arms sales to the extremist regime in Teheran, a regime that has already
been sanctioned by the international community because of its ongoing and
fla­grant violations of UN Security Council resolutions."

Russian officials said the mis­siles were purely defensive weapons with a
limited range, and argued that the Tor-M1 deal, involving conventional
weapons, did not violate any international agreements.

"We are developing military-technical cooperation with Iran based on
international law," they said.

Russian media have reported previously that Moscow had conducted talks on
selling even more powerful long-range S-300 air defense mis­siles to
Teheran, but Russian officials have denied that. Moscow already has a $1
billion contract to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's first.

AP contributed to the report.