Russia’s ambassador to Iran says all Russian jets have left the base in Iran that they used to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.
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Iran said on Monday that Russian Federation has stopped using its Hamedan air base for carrying out air strikes at Islamic State strongholds in Syria.
His remarks also suggest Russian Federation and Iran initially agreed to keep Moscow’s use of the air base quiet. Along with fighters from Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia, Russian muscle is helping to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, striking a wide range of his enemies, from the Islamic State to more moderate armed opposition groups.
According to a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Russia has stopped the use of Iran’s Hamadan airbase.
Russian Federation was “inconsiderate” and “keen to show off as a superpower” by disclosing its use of the Hamadan base for the missions, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said on state-run Channel 2 television late Sunday.
“We have not given any military base to the Russians and they are not here to stay”, Dehghan was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
“Russia has no base in Iran nor has it deployed [its fighter jets] in our country”, Ghasemi told the news agency.
Ghasemi reiterated that Russian Federation “has no base in Iran”. “It was the subject which is over for now”, Xinhua quoted Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.
Last week, Russian Federation announced it used the airfield, located some 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Iranian city of Hamedan.
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The remarks suggest that the operation was not supposed to get public by either side. “They just don’t want the world to know that they are contributing to the deaths of thousands of Syrian civilians”, said the USA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The plan of the exercises envisages testing the readiness of the forces of the Caspian Flotilla in resolving crisis situations presenting a threat to the military security of the country, including of a terrorist nature”, the MoD said in a release.
