Telegraph | August 5, 2010
By Damien McElroy
Iran claimed it had smuggled four S-300 anti aircraft missile systems with a 90 mile range in defiance of United Nations sanction that prompted a Russian ban on selling the sophisticated defence system to Tehran.
US and British officials responded with delight when Moscow unexpectedly pulled out of a deal to sell the system to Iran after the UN passed sanctions including an arms embargo on the Islamic state in June. But Tehran now claims it received two S-300s from Belarus and two others from another unspecified source.
If the news is confirmed, the threat posed by the system would be a serious deterent to military planners contemplating a strike on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The S-300 is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of more than 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet.
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