Russian Federation has stopped using an Iranian airbase for its missions in Syria “for now”, Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday. “They conducted it and they are gone now”, foreign ministry spokesperson Bahram Ghasemi said reporters in Tehran.
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Russian Federation and Iran did not have a formal agreement for the use of the base, but do have a number of agreements on collaboration against terrorism, the diplomat said.
Last week long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers used Nojeh air base, near the Hamadan city, in north-west Iran to launch air strikes against armed groups in Syria. Moving through Iran allowed the Russian air force to shorten the length of its flights and use its bombs more efficiently.
Russia’s ambassador to Tehran, Levan Dzhagaryan, also confirmed to the Interfax news agency that all of Moscow’s warplanes have withdrawn from Iran, according to the AP.
Russian Federation and Iran are the main global backers of the Syrian regime, but Tehran has been more guarded in revealing the full extent of its involvement.
Russian Federation previous year sent two salvos of Kalibr cruise missiles against ISIS targets in Syria from ships in the Caspian Sea, the first ever combat use of those missiles and an unprecedented step in the militarization of the Caspian. Moreover, Russia had been here, temporarily and now it is over, other than that they have not stationed here. “They came, they went and they finished it”, Ghasemi said.
“In the next days our team will meet this week, and depending on where those discussions go, it is very possible, very likely, that Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov and I would meet”, he said.
For the first time, Iranian base is being used by a foreign power after world war two. “They just don’t want the world to know that they are contributing to the deaths of thousands of Syrian civilians”, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“For the time being, there are no [Russians] remaining in Hamedan” airbase, he added.
After some delay, Russian Federation supplied Iran with its S-300 missile air defence system, evidence of a growing partnership that is testing US influence in the Middle East.
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Over the weekend, photographs of President Hassan Rouhani were published in Iranian state media near a Bavar-373 missile defense system.
