Russian Federation surprised the global community last week when it announced that its warplanes had flown out of Iran’s Hamedan base to conduct strikes against targets in Syria. “Russia and China has been beside Iran in the United Nations and used their veto right in thwarting off some of damaging resolutions targeting Iran”.
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The statements come after Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Hossein Dehghan, criticized Moscow for making public its use of the airport.
Moscow and Tehran would conduct mutually beneficial cooperation and reach agreements on some specific issues soon, including the use of the Hamadan airbase by the Russian military to strike extremist groups in Syria, Vladimir Komoedov, chairman of the Defense Committee in the State Duma, said in an interview with Izvestiya newspaper.
Iran’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is planning to start negotiations with Russian Federation over the acquisition of Sukhoi combat aircraft, Iranian Defense Minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan said in an interview to an Iranian TV channel on August 22. He added that Iran’s Shahid Nojeh air base in Hamedan is only “used for refueling”, not for permanent deployment.
Last week long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers used the air base to launch air strikes against Daesh and al-Nusra strongholds in Syria.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that Russian Federation has now stopped using the air base.
Dehghan over the weekend said Russia’s use of the air base was not their concern, though parliament has oversight of all government ministries. Iran’s defence minister had said last week that Russian Federation would be permitted to use the Nojeh base “for as long as they need”.
Larijani said Dehghan “should have observed the ethics of governing”.
Russia, like Iran, is a key ally of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Three other semi-official news agencies quoted Larijani as saying the Russian flights from the air base, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the city of Hamedan, “have not stopped”.
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Iran unveiled its new missile defence system, Bavar 373, on Monday, a system created to intercept cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles.
