Having already delivered one division of the S 300 missile system to Iran this year, Russia plans to provide several more of them to Tehran before the end of 2016, Vladimir Kozhin, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday. Kozhin’s comments, reported by Interfax agency, came days after another federal official in Moscow said the country would do its best to meet its commitment to Iran.

The two countries had signed a deal in 2007, for Iran to buy several divisions of the S-300 missile system from Russia. However, after the UN Security Council imposed nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran, Moscow did not deliver the missiles in 2010. After the sanctions were lifted in January this year, Tehran demanded Moscow to fulfill its part of the deal.

Moscow’s refusal to deliver the systems to Iran prompted the Islamic Republic to file a complaint against the relevant Russian arms firm with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva.

Vladimir Kozhin said Moscow has so far this year provided Iran with the first batch of S-300 air defense systems.

“We have a signed contract with Iran, the first batch has now been unloaded, approximately a battalion. We will continue to fulfill our commitments until year-end,” Kozhin said.

The full contract for Iran is “several S-300 battalion sets,” he noted.

Russia committed to delivering the systems to Iran under a USD-800-million deal in 2007.

In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban, following which Russia signed a new contract to supply Iran with the systems by the end of that year.

Last month, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Tehran and Moscow had begun implementing the contract on the delivery of the Russian defense systems to the Islamic Republic; Irandaily reported.

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