LOOKING BEYOND THE S-300 – Iran’s Missile Defenses – Dec 09

In the face of equipment delays from Russia, and amid mounting fears of foreign attack, Iran’s ayatollahs are making other plans to protect their nuclear facilities. Reuters (November 15) reports a senior Iranian lawmaker as saying that the Islamic Republic could soon itself produce "advanced" missile defenses to defend its nuclear sites against potential external aggression. The news marks a decision by Iran to seek local alternatives to the S-300, an advanced anti-air and anti-missile system which Russia has long stalled at delivering to the Islamic Republic under pressure from the U.S. and Israel. "Iran is not a country to come to a halt in the face of non-cooperation of other countries," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the national security and foreign policy committee in Iran’s parliament, tells a domestic newspaper. "Naturally and in view of the capabilities it possesses, the Islamic Republic will be able to mass-produce this missile system in a not so distant future."

http://www.afpc.org/publication_listings/viewBulletin/877

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