The Russian military said on Monday its aircraft operating from an Iranian air base to conduct strikes in Syria had completed their tasks, but left open the possibility of using the Hamadan base again if circumstances warranted. “At the moment all of Russia’s planes that participated in that operation are in Russian territory”, he said.
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The ministry said in a statement on Monday that as long as Iran agrees Russian Federation could use the Iranian air base again “depending on the situation” in Syria.
The base only began being used last week, and was seen as a major win for Russia’s air war, as the Iran base supporters larger planes than their own bases inside Syria, and was much closer than flying them from Russian Federation directly.
His remarks reflect the Iranian authorities’ displeasure at the extent of publicity Russia’s use of an Iranian air base got last week. Iranian officials only confirmed Russia’s presence a day later. The comments by Gen. Hossein Dehghan came after he chastised parliament this weekend for asking questions about Russian Federation using the base.
Analysts have suggested Russia potentially leveraged Iran into allowing it to use the airfield over either economic or military interests, such as Tehran wanting to purchase Sukhoi-30 fighter jets or its deployment of Russian S-300 air defense missile systems.
“Russia has no base in Iran and is not stationed here. They did this (operation) and it is finished for now”, Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
Russian Federation first announced last week that its planes had flown combat missions from Iran, a move that represented a historical rapprochement between Moscow and Tehran. “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. Dzhagaryan said, however, that he does “not see any reason” why the Russians can’t use the Iranian base again.
Over the weekend, photographs of President Hassan Rouhani were published in Iranian state media near a Bavar-373 missile defense system.
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Dehghan’s remarks were the first sign of pushback from Tehran after Russian Federation last week began using Iranian territory to launch airstrikes in Syria, with Moscow’s bombers flying out of the Islamic Republic for three straight days to hit what Russian Federation says are Islamic State targets and other militants in the war-ravaged country.
