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Western intelligence sources insist that Tehran did not buy S-300 missile systems from Belarus or anyone else, Israeli newspaper says

Western intelligence sources dismiss Tehran’s claims that it possesses four S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, according to a Jerusalem Post report of August 9, as quoted by BelaPAN.

Fars, a semiofficial Iranian news agency, reported earlier this month that Iran had obtained four S-300 systems despite Russia's refusal to deliver them to Tehran under a valid contract, with two of them coming from Belarus and the other two from another unspecified source.

In 2007, Russia signed an $800-million contract to sell S-300s to Iran but has not delivered them following a decision to back new UN sanctions against Tehran.

Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian state arms trader Rosoboronexport, said that his company had not delivered any S-300s to Iran. "We are abiding by the U.N. sanctions," he said.

“Belarus has not held talks with Tehran on this matter and has not supplied S-300 systems or their components to Iran,” Uladzimir Lawranyuk, spokesman for the State Defense Industry Committee, told BelaPAN on August 4.

“Belarus strictly abides by its commitments in the sphere of arms export control,” he stressed.