by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Turkey is also negotiating with other country's over similar systems, but "Russia's position on this issue now is positive," says Turkish defense minister • Russia has already delivered previous generation S-300 to Iran and deployed both systems in Syria.
Turkey is seeking to buy advanced Russian
S-400 air defense systems to strengthen the country’s missile defense,
Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said in an interview with Turkey's
NTV broadcaster on Friday.
"We are negotiating on the S-400 not only with
Russia, but with other countries that have similar systems. Russia's
position on this issue now is positive," Isik said.
The S-400 is Russia's next-generation air
defense system. It can carry three different types of missiles capable
of destroying aerial targets at short to extremely long ranges. The
system is capable of tracking and destroying all existing types of
aerial targets, including ballistics and cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, reports
surfaced last week that Russia and Iran were negotiating an arms deal
worth upwards of $10 billion, which would see Moscow deliver T-90 tanks,
artillery systems, planes and helicopters to Tehran.
The deal has been able to go forward following
the United Nations' partial lift of the arms embargo previously placed
on Iran. Easing the restrictions on arms sales was part of Iran's
nuclear deal with the West, inked in July 2015.
Still, until 2020, deliveries of conventional
weapons must be approved by the U.N. Security Council, which could
present a hurdle to any new contract, the report said.
"The U.S. and its allies will obviously try to
block these deliveries, but we will continue these talks," Viktor
Ozerov, head of the defense and security committee in the Russian upper
house of parliament, the Federation Council, told reporters while on a
parliamentary visit to Iran.
The new arms deal comes on the heels of a Russian delivery of advanced S-300 air defense systems to Iran this summer.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the
sale to go ahead after the interim nuclear agreement was signed, and the
first complete units were delivered in August. Ozerov noted that all
Iran's S-300 units "would be battle-ready" by the end of the year.
Russia and Iran have emerged as allies on a
number of issues in recent years, most prominently the Syrian civil war,
where the two have sided with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia has
already deployed the S-300 and S-400 systems to Syria.
Turkey, however, has long sought Assad's removal.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=38137
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