MOSCOW: Russia has completed a contract to deliver its TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran, Itar-Tass news agency quoted Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
"(Russia) fully completed delivery to Iran of the TOR-M1 missile complexes at the end of December 2006," Tass quoted Chemezov as saying. The deal to supply the missiles has angered the United States and Israel.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said last week, the missile systems were being delivered to Iran but his ministry said at the time the deliveries not been completed.
Washington and Israel say Iran - under international sanctions over its nuclear programme - could use the missile systems to attack its neighbours and undermine security in the West Asia. Russia says the missiles only operate over a short-range and are a purely defensive weapon.
President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin is aggressively pushing arms sales abroad and trying to reassert its role as a global power, especially in the West Asia.
Russia says it is up to it to decide what arms deals it signs. The United Nations has banned sensitive nuclear trade with Iran, but there are no sanctions on conventional weapons like the TOR-M1 systems.
