Beginning on August 16, Russian bombers took off from the Hamadan base in western Iran for three consecutive days to strike terrorist targets in Syria.
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Dehghan denied Iran had “reserved” its airbase in the western Hamedan region for Russian Federation, saying it would only use the base for a limited time in line with the need in Syria.
A statement issued by the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that as long as Iran agreed, Russia 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.
It also highlights the public unpopularity of allowing Russian Federation to use the air base – which marked the first time since the revolution that a foreign military has used Iran as a staging ground.
His remarks reflect the Iranian authorities’ displeasure at the extent of publicity Russia’s use of an Iranian air base got last week. No foreign power has based forces in Iran since World War II.
Iran and Russian Federation are key backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but Tehran has remained relatively guarded about its precise involvement in the conflict. Some Iranian lawmakers called the move a breach of Iran’s constitution which forbids “the establishment of any kind of foreign military base in Iran, even for peaceful purposes”. “If the leaders of our two countries consider it necessary and reach the relevant agreements, what sort of problems can there be?” he told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
The US State Department on Monday said that it was unclear if Moscow’s use of the airbase had “definitively stopped”.
Since last September, Russia has bolstered its military assets in Syria’s coastal areas, generally relying on a Caspian Sea-Iran-Iraq air corridor.
The about-face and the explanation for it from Iran’s Foreign Ministry seemed to surprise Russian Federation, where state news media had been trumpeting the deal as a sign of a growing friendship with Iran. “They came, they went and they finished it”.
Last week, long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers used the air base near Hamadan to launch air strikes against armed groups in Syria.
“The Iranians don’t mind helping out quietly”.
“For the time being, there are no [Russians] remaining in Hamedan” airbase, he added.
“All Russian military now left Iran’s Hamedan airbase”, Ambassador Levan said.
Dehghan said that to make up for the delay, Russian Federation had suggested providing Iran with its advanced S-400, but that Tehran was not interested as it is working to advance its own home-made defense system. And, on Sunday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was proudly standing in front of the country’s indigenously developed Bavar 373 missile defence system.
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Iran’s defense minister is chastising Russian Federation, saying Moscow’s announcement on using Iranian bases for attacks on Syrian militants was “kind of show off and ungentlemanly”.
