No Obstacle to Buying Russian Weapons

Iran sees no political obstacle to signing new arms contract with Russia, a senior Iranian lawmaker said, stressing the need for removing military hurdles to sign new agreements between the two countries.

Chairman of Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi made the above statement in an interview with TASS news agency in Moscow on Tuesday, when asked if Tehran was mulling the possibility of purchasing weapons from Russia.

Boroujerdi hailed the longstanding defense cooperation between the two governments, saying the Russian supply of S-300 missile systems showed there is potential for deepening Tehran-Moscow military partnership.

"It was indeed a milestone in our cooperation," he said, referring to an 800-million-dollar deal in 2007 under which Russia committed to delivering the S-300 systems to Tehran.

The contract was completed last year, when Moscow announced it had concluded the delivery of S-300 to Iran. Boroujerdi was accompanying Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, who took part in the Parliamentarians Against Drugs international conference hosted by the Russian Parliament on Monday. In a talk with TASS on Monday, Larijani said Tehran believes there is need for greater intelligence cooperation with Moscow for countering drug trafficking.