Russia sells missiles to Iran

RUSSIA has struck a deal to sell short-range, surface-to-air missiles to Iran, the defence minister said yesterday, confirming reports that have raised concern in the United States and Israel.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov didn’t give details, but Russian media have said that Moscow agreed in November to sell $1 billion worth of weapons to Iran, including up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems over the next two years.

“A contract for the delivery of air defence Tor missiles to Iran has indeed been signed,” Ivanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “This unequivocally will not change the balance of forces in the region,” Ivanov added.

Tor M1 missiles are short-range, surface-to-air missiles already used by several other armed forces, including China.

The reports last week prompted expressions of concern from the US administration and Israel, which considers Iran to be its biggest threat.

Israeli concerns recently were heightened after Iranian president Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map.”

Top politicians in Israel have ratcheted up the tough talk against Iran, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations. Such a strike would be similar to a 1981 attack, ordered by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.