© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
In March 2009, Moscow which has always refused to deliver the S-300 -above- to Iran announced a possible delivery if the “international situation would change”. This is the case today.

It’s in 1988 and within the framework of this Russian weaponry purchase that Khatami demanded to Boris Elstine the S-300 anti-missile missiles system. At that time, the deal was impossible to close because of the Gore-Tchernomyrdine protocol that was signed on the 30 June 1995 about the prohibition to sell missiles to Iran. At the beginning of 2000, Russia broke such agreement off because Washington authorized 6 years before it came on force its allies to sell missiles to Iran. De facto, the Gore-Tchernomyrdine protocol wasn’t meant for limiting the mullahs’ ballistic capacities but for harming Russian exports.

In 2000, a great cooperation with the mullahs became possible with the obvious aim of creating some anti-American pole. However Washington promulgated immediately the Iran Non-Proliferation Act -a law with a premonitory name about the American future projects- which provided sanctions against Russia. Such law aimed at forbidding the sales to the mullahs of important pieces such as the S-300 because this system would make Iran invulnerable to strikes and then any policy of pressure that would be based on military intimidation would remain ineffective.

While they were at it, Washington and Moscow disagreed about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a pretext for an invasion because Russians used to have important oil interests in this country. Afterwards, when Washington mentioned some Iranian nuclear threat, Moscow thought it was living again the Iraqi episode and it decided to tighten its links with the mullahs more precisely because the latter can help it to block the adoption of any judicial status for the Caspian Sea which would prevent Central Asia from getting a direct access to Europe via Turkey. It’s at that time it decided to disregard Washington’s pressures by signing in 2005 a contract with Iran about the sale of S-300. Then Washington sanctioned several Russian companies and among them Sukhoi, a manufacturer of military planes. After that, it went back on this decision in order to make possible any purchase to Russia of the titanium it needs for its own planes. Thus Moscow became able to sign at the end of 2007, i.e. 9 years after the request Khatami formulated, the contract related to the delivery of S-300 to Iran. Accessorily in 2007, Russia was crowned world champion of 2007 weapons sales.

But short time after such historical sale, Moscow realized that the mullahs were having secret negotiations with Washington and that they wished to obtain such S-300 in order to have elbow room in their tussle game and then obtain the most interesting agreement clauses ! In order to make this haggling fail and deprive it de facto from its anti-American allies, since 2008, Russians adopted an ambiguous position via the refusal to deliver the S-300 on several more or less credible pretexts -such as late payment.

Such situation changed when Obama entered in the Oval Bureau and offered the mullahs a dialogue free of any precondition. Moscow thus considered it should proceed with the delivery because this would make the mullahs very disturbing which could lead those secret negotiations to a failure. But in the absence of any favourable gesture from the mullahs in answer to Obama’s offer, its worries vanished and it forgot the S-300. Then Tehran started to search for another provider but Moscow intervened to neutralize such purchases.

The situation changed again in September 2009 when Washington obtained the Russian adhesion to its side in exchange of the abandonment of the AMB project and the grant to Russia of the right to occupy militarily Abkhazia and South Ossetia for an extraordinary duration of 49 years. Since then, Russia, the mullahs’ safety last chance, became a true puppet that has played according to Washington’s needs the role of the one that favours fiercely sanctions or the part of the fierce opponent to any new sanction. Russia’s transition to the West should appear as a bad news for the mullahs because this country was one of possible providers in case of embargo on gasoline.

Thus Washington hoped it would boost its intimidations’ impact and force the mullahs to accept its request of becoming allies in order to help it to make Central Asia’s Muslims revolt against China. However the mullahs didn’t lose their head because they think since ever that Americans cannot overthrow them at the risk of saying good-bye to their dreams of revolutionary destabilization of the Chinese wealthy Xinjiang region which is populated with Muslims. And they resisted with the hope that Washington would inevitably make a step backward before China consolidates durably its hold on Central Asia. This was an estimation mistake because to be able to stand up to Washington, the mullahs had to draw from their reserves and they escaped narrowly from economic apoplexy to the point that Washington was even obliged to grant them an oil contract with Iraq in order to make them get some currency and thus prevent them from collapsing.

Later Washington that had to make the Senate adopt a bill on an embargo that would be also adopted by the Chamber made the Senate approve another text that would launch a new procedure of debates and let the mullahs breathe again for a short time.

In such context in which it’s necessary to give time to the mullahs to recover, the delivery of S-300, that would make theoretically any military retaliation impossible, seems perfect to explain Washington’s inaction and this prompted Anatoli Issaïkine, general manager of the Russian Agency of weapons export, to make statements about the absence of UNO sanctions that would prohibit the “continuation of military and technical cooperation in fields which are of common interest for Moscow and Tehran”. Because Moscow mentioned previously the late payment excuse to explain its refusal to delivery the S-300, the hilarious Mr Issaïkine specified that the mullahs’ regime has “always fulfilled the commitments appearing in military contracts”.

Thus Tehran may get the toy it has claimed . But it’s not necessarily out of trouble because if by great chance Washington renounces to its long-standing project of regional destabilization via Islam, it will provide with greater means the opponents who intend to revolt people, an entity against which S-300 remain powerless.

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
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