The news that Russian warplanes were flying from the Islamic republic shocked Iranians and sparked criticism from some parliamentarians.
Advertisement
“As for Hamadan, Iran provided an airfield for temporary purposes”, said Shurygin, adding that Russian bombers could use the airfield to conduct airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria.
Elsewhere in his comments, Boroujerdi pointed to Russia’s recent use of an Iranian airbase for dispatching bomber jets to Syria, describing it as part of concerted action against terrorism formulated by the joint operations rooms of Iran, Russia, Syria and Iraq, which he said were set up in both Damascus and Baghdad a year ago. Russian Federation went public with that information that its Tupolev Tu-22 M3 bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers are using the airbase in Hamadan to hit targets in Syria.
Ghasemi left open the possibility of Russian Federation utilising the Hamedan base in the future, saying it would depend on “the situation in the region, and according to our permission”. The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Larijani as criticizing Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan for not “speaking properly” to lawmakers’ concerns.
With a history of meddling by Western powers, notably Britain, Iran guards its sovereignty closely.
“Iran has brought powerful Russian Federation along. due to its need to cooperate with Syria” in the fight against militants, Shamkhani added. “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”. But while Britain withdrew, Russian Federation refused to leave, sparking the first global rebuke by the nascent United Nations Security Council in 1946.
“The Russians are interested to show they are a superpower to guarantee their share in the political future of Syria and, of course, there has been a kind of show-off and ungentlemanly [attitude] in this field”, Dehghan said.
“Now, the deployment is temporarily finished and Russia’s use of the base has ended”, Qassemi said, adding, “Russia has no base in Iran”.
Advertisement
Last week, Russian Federation announced that its Tu-22M3 bombers carried out combat missions in Syria from Iran’s Hamadan airfield.
