Iran Denies Plan to Buy S-400

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson denied that the country planned to purchase the S-400 air defense missile system from Russia.

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Abbas Mousavi dismissed reports about Tehran’s plans for the purchase of S-400 missile system.

“We have not made any requests to Russia for the purchase of S-400,” the spokesman underlined.

“We do not feel a need for this (Russian) system for now,” Mousavi said, adding that homegrown air defense systems developed by Iranian experts are not any less reliable than foreign ones.

The spokesperson further expressed gratitude to Russia for its stances towards the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying the Russians and Chinese proved their commitment to the JCPOA, both in words and deeds.

Although Russia and China have their own restrictions, they have put forward and implemented “good initiatives” for interaction with Iran, Mousavi added, but refused to give more details on the initiatives.

In August 2016, then-defense minister of Iran General Hossein Dehqan announced that Russia had offered Iran “S-400 and some other systems”, but Tehran had no plans to get them.

Iran received the S-300 from Russia in July 2016 and installed the missile system a month later.

Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 defense systems, but after its initial refusal to sell the system, Iranian experts began to manufacture a domestic version, known as Bavar-373.

Tasnim News Agency