After the historical ‘Abraham Accord,’ the Middle-East could be heading towards an official US-backed security grouping where most Arab nations and Israel would be countering an Iranian, Turkish or even a joint alliance.
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The counter the possible alliance against ‘deal friend’ Iran which is bound to raise temperatures especially in Iran and the UAE, the Russian ambassador to Iran has said that Moscow will have ‘no problem’ in supplying its most advanced S-400 air defence systems to the Iranian military.
The statement was issued by the Levan Jagarian, Moscow’s ambassador to Iran, in an interview given to the pro-Khamenei conservative news agency Resalat. The bid is seen to take forward Putin’s ‘S-400 diplomacy’.
The statement comes after Russia downplayed the threat of US sanctions on Tehran, as the United States is said to be planning to re-impose them following the breaking of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The Russian S-400 was also the reason that deteriorated ties between the US and a major NATO ally – Turkey, that eventually led to the expulsion of Ankara from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Ignoring the threats, Ankara even ordered a second batch of Russian S-400 systems.
Russia and Iran have been close allies in most of the theatres of war and have had warm military and trade ties. With Washington going increasingly “anti-Iran,” ties among two nations have only strengthened.
However, the decision will surely raise eyebrows in Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi, with Israel claiming its military supremacy in the region and has reportedly entered Iranian airspace many times to carry out pre-emptive strikes on its nuclear facility.
Israel boasts having the stealth F-35 and being the first one to use them in combat, claiming to have evaded any radar system coming its way. It was even claimed that Israeli F-35s flew to Tehran and came back in a test of the aircraft’s capabilities.
With the possible acquisition of the S-400 systems, its claimed capabilities against American 5th-generation fighter jets will be put to test and deter Israeli pilots from entering the Iranian airspace. Or, at least, give the pilots a chance to worry and a sense of vulnerability in their otherwise-invincible flying computers.
Iran already operates the earlier version of the system, called the S-300.
