Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iranian parliament’s speaker Ali Larijani has said no military base was given to Russia, Tasnim news agency reports.
“No base in Iran has been given to Russian military,” Larijani said. “Tehran cooperates with Moscow on regional issues, including Syria, but no base has been given to them.”
Larijani also dismissed the media reports on the issue.
He made the remarks during a parliament session held Aug 17 after MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said the deployment of Russian military forces in Nojeh airbase in Iran’s western Hamadan city is against the Article 146 of the Islamic Republic’s Constitution.
Falahatpisheh, who is a member of the parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, said Russia has shown in recent years that it has “a different and volatile foreign policy.”
The Iranian MP further said, “The world powers follow their own interests in their foreign policy.”
“They have indicated that whenever the Islamic Republic is faced with a crisis, they stand against our country,” Falahatpisheh added.
Reacting to the reports about deployment of Russian bombers in Iran, Ali Shamkhani, head of Iran’s National Security Council, said earlier that Tehran and Moscow are sharing facilities and capacities in the fight against terrorism.
“The Tehran-Moscow cooperation in fighting terrorism in Syria is strategic and we exchange capacities and facilities in this regard,” added Shamkhani.
On Aug. 16, Russia said its Tu-22M3 and Su-34 bombers are deployed in Iran and from there the aircraft are hitting the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist group in Syria.
The Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighters, taking off from Iran’s Hamadan Airbase, have hit the positions of the IS and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups in Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Idlib, RIA Novosti reported citing a Russian Defense Ministry message Aug. 16.
After the sorties, the bombers returned to the base in Iran.