'First phase' of S-300 delivery completed

Iran says Tehran and Moscow have begun implementing a contract on Russia's delivery of S-300 missile defense systems to the Islamic Republic.

"The first phase of the contract has completed the implementation course," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari said during his weekly news conference in Tehran Monday, Press TV reported.

"We hope that under the new plan, different phases of implementation will be completed to the end of the contract," he added.

Russia's delivery of the S-300 system under a USD 800-million deal signed in 2007 is already long behind time.

Moscow cancelled the contract in 2010 under pressure from the West. President Vladimir Putin lifted that self-imposed ban in April 2015, after an interim agreement that paved the way for July's full nuclear deal with Iran.

Russia's agreement to provide Iran with S-300 has sparked worries in Israel which has repeatedly threatened to attack Tehran's nuclear facilities.

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