On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Russia’s use of the base has ended.
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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.
An agreement between the two countries over the issue is “only a matter of time”, he said. Both Iran and Russian Federation support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s long war.
Gen Deghan explained that Russian Federation had “decided to bring in more planes and boost its speed and accuracy in operations”.
“There was a showing-off and a discourteous attitude behind the announcement”, he was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency.
A Syrian Kurdish news agency says clashes have erupted again in the northern Syrian city of Hasakeh between Kurdish fighters and Syrian pro-government militias. “This means Russian Federation will be able to implement its plans in cooperation with Iran, which enjoys authorization by the Supreme National Security Council, to use an Iranian airbase for refueling its aircraft”, Taraqi noted.
“That in a part of Aleppo a certain operation would need air support and that support would be given by Russian Federation as a result of Iranian advisers is a sign of power not dependency”, he said.
“I’d have to refer you frankly to the governments of Russian Federation and Iran to speak to what happened, we’re monitoring it closely, we continue to, it’s not clear to us other than what we’ve seen in various press and public statements whether (Russia) their use of this airbase has definitively stopped, but we’ll continue to watch it closely”.
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”.
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.
Airstrikes launched from there hit targets belonging to ISIS and the Jabhat al-Nusra militant group in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib, Russia’s defense ministry said.
The US State Department on Monday said that it was unclear if Moscow’s use of the airbase had “definitively stopped”.
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Russian Federation state news media had been trumpeting the deal as a sign that its partnership with Iran was deepening.
