Iran successfully tests own S-300 missile defense system

Iranian president says Western embargoes are useless, and country "does not need nuclear weapons to defend itself."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS, JPOST.COM STAFF
Ahmadinejad smiling, waving 311 (photo credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Ahmadinejad smiling, waving 311
(photo credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran has designed and successfully tested an air defense system with the capabilities of Russia's S-300 system, PressTV reported on Thursday.
"We have developed the system by upgrading systems like S-200 and we have tested it successfully using all our potential and experience in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the Army and the Defense Ministry," Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan Mansourian told the Iranian television station.
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Mansourian added that details about the long-range missile defense systems will be revealed soon.
Russia had canceled a deal to sell the S-300 system to Iran in September, due to sanctions.
Also on Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that embargoes are ineffectual and the West should drop its aggressive approach if talks on Teheran's nuclear program are to be successful.
Ahmadinejad said Thursday at a Caspian Sea summit in Azerbaijan that Iran is ready to return to six-party talks on its atomic energy program.
He added that the West "must reject its exploitative approach" toward Iran if any breakthroughs are to be made, and that "Iran won't be scared by embargoes."
On Wednesday,  the Iranian Foreign Ministry slammed Western powers for trying to block Iran-Russia cooperation, AFP reported.
"We cannot allow far away countries to prevent our cooperation and strategic partnership," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast in a Wednesday interview with Russia Today.
"We have longstanding relations with Russia and we hope to cooperate in the long-term with this country," he said. "Our countries have an enormous potential for political, economic and technological cooperation."
Ahmadinejad and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are expected to meet on Thursday. Also on Wednesday, in a press conference in Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad said his country does not need a nuclear bomb,  PressTV reported. "The Iranian nation does not need a nuclear bomb to defend itself, as Iran's nuclear bomb is its bravery and national honor,” Ahmadinejad said to a crowd of Iranians residing in the neighboring country. He reportedly added that "nuclear bombs belong to those countries that are backward in a historical sense, and the Iranian nation has no use for it." He also said that, despite Western opposition, "today there are 6,000 centrifuges performing nuclear enrichment" in Iran, and that his response to sanctions is "to access pinnacles of growth and progress one by one."


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