According to him, the sanctions must not be pretext to refuse fulfilling the terms of the agreement: “The recommendations of the U.S. and its allies impede the implementation of this agreement. However, the two countries signed the agreement before the sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council.”
In 2007, Iran signed a contract worth $800mln to buy five Russian S300 missile defense systems. But the deal was scrapped in 2010 by the then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was unilaterally expanding on sanctions against Iran imposed by the UN Security Council. Iran filed a $4bln lawsuit against Russia in the international arbitration court in Geneva, which is currently pending review.