Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov confirms the sale of short-range anti-aircraft TOR-M1 missiles to Iran, as first revealed by debkafile on De

Ivanon stated that Moscow will consider further requests from Tehran for defensive weapons. The Russian minister added: “Iran is not under sanctions and if it wants to buy defensive … equipment for its armed forces then why not?”
He insisted that the UN sanctions restricting Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology “do not apply to missiles.”
Read original debkafile article HERE
debkafile‘s Moscow sources reveal this is exactly the position President Vladimir Putin laid before Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert at their Kremlin talks on Oct. 18, 2006. They quote Putin as spurning Olmert’s request to withhold advanced weaponry from Tehran. He said: We will sell Iran and Syria too all the defensive arms they want to buy. Neither Israel nor the Americans can stop us. As long as we don’t give them offensive weapons, you have nothing to complain of.”
On his return home, the Israeli prime minister presented his talks with Putin as a big success and therefore neglected to make the Russian president’s position on arms sales to Iran and Syrian known. National military strategists were therefore caught unawares by the revelation of Moscow’s sale of the S-300PMU2 Favorit air defense system to Syria.
According to our Moscow sources, Putin and Ivanov are determined to equip Tehran and Damascus with defensive hardware to deter the United States and Israel from attacking both countries by the threat of heavy casualties. Last December, debkafile‘s military sources reported the conviction of some Iranian and Russian aid defense experts that the deployment of Tor-M1 missiles at Iran’s nuclear installations will make it almost impossible for the Americans or Israelis to knock out those facilities for any lengthy period. Therefore, they estimated that any US or Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear sites must go forward in the next six months before the new Russian anti-air systems are in place.