Moscow to sell missiles to Iran
MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- Russia has agreed to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran as part of a $1 billion arms deal that would significantly increase Moscow's military cooperation with Tehran, Russian news media reported Friday.
The announcement of the sale coincided with a visit to Moscow by Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, who said in a radio interview that the U.S. had asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain the deal, reported by the newspaper Vedomosti and the Interfax news agency.
The missiles, known by the NATO designation SA-15 Gauntlet, are deployed on tracked vehicles and designed to strike aircraft or cruise missiles flying at altitudes up to 20,000 feet at a range of 7 miles, according to the Federation of American Scientists' Web site.
Vedomosti, citing two unidentified sources, said Russia would sell 29 missile systems to Iran and that the weapons would complicate a potential air strike by the U.S. or Israel on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Russia is helping to build.