Tehran, Iran, Apr. 12
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran's Foreign Ministry dismisses the reports that Iran has received S-300 missiles from Russia.
The ministry's spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said the media quotes from him a day earlier were "imprecise" in making claims to that effect, ISNA news agency reported Apr. 12.
On Monday, Ansari told a press conference that the first phase of a series of agreements between Tehran and Moscow to deliver the missiles had been accomplished.
Iranian media, however, quoted him as saying the country had received the first consignment of the missiles.
The Iranian news outlets made the mistake almost unanimously and with so much confidence that even leading Western agencies, such as BBC and Reuters, repeated them.
Iran signed a deal for the purchase of the missiles from Russia in 2007. Moscow has been refraining from delivering the arms so far, although Iran has already paid for them.