Russia and Iran will continue military cooperation, despite Russia's support of the latest UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
In June, the UN Security Council imposed a forth round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear enrichment program. Western countries believe that Iran is trying to build weapons under the guise of peaceful nuclear generation.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that president Dmitry Medvedev had signed a decree banning the supply of battle tanks, armored vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, warplanes, military helicopters, ships and missiles, including S-300 air defense systems, to Iran as part of the measures Russia is taking to comply with the UN resolution.
"We will not able to develop military-technical cooperation with Iran in these categories [of weapons], but there are other directions," Stold Russian journalists in New York on Wednesday, after a meeting of the Iran Six group of mediators on the Islamic Republic's nuclear issue. Ryabkov said.
Washington welcomed on Wednesday Russia's move to prohibit the delivery of S-300 air defense missiles and other weapons to Iran as a "faithful and robust implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1929," of June 9, 2010.
Russia, a permanent Security Council member, has long been opposing new sanctions against Iran, saying the dispute should be resolved by diplomatic means. However, as Iran has failed to prove that its nuclear enrichment pursues civilian purposes, Moscow eventually voted for sanctions to be imposed.
NEW YORK, September 23 (RIA Novosti)