On January 20 in Teheran, Russia and Iran signed an agreement on military cooperation. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Hossein Dehghan signed the new agreement. Remarking on its significance, Shoigu stated, “A theoretic base of cooperation in the military sphere has been created.” He added that the two countries have agreed on “bilateral cooperation in practical regards and to promote an increase in the military capabilities of the armed forces of our countries.” The two also agreed on “the importance of the need to develop Russia and Iran’s cooperation in the joint struggle against meddling in the affairs of the region by external forces that are not part of it was framed,” Iranian Defense Minister Dehghan declared. To make sure no one mistook who he meant, he added that the reason for aggravation in the situation of the region was a US policy that “meddles in the domestic affairs of other countries.”
The coming closer of the two Eurasian countries, both bordering the strategic Caspian Sea, has enormous implications for global geopolitics. The Obama Administration has tried to woo Iran in a stick (economic sanctions) and carrot (promise of lifting same) manner over the past eighteen months to get Teheran to agree major concessions on her nuclear program. Until recently, despite US sanctions over Ukraine, Russia was willing to show “good faith” to Washington by participating in the 5-1 nuclear negotiations with Iran to persuade Teheran to make major concessions on its nuclear program, one where Russia built the just-completed Bushehr nuclear power plant, the first in the Middle East. That phase is clearly over and Iran’s hand in the negotiations with the US, France, Germany, UK has just got stronger, sanctions or not.…
To date the S-300 issue had been a major bone of contention between Teheran and Moscow. Now, according to a report in DebkaFile.com, a website reportedly linked to Israeli intelligence, Russia has agreed not only to deliver the S-300 SAM missile systems Iran bought back in 2007. Russia will also deliver S-400 advanced missile systems to Iran. They quote the Iranian defense ministry, “The two countries have decided to settle the S-300s problem.” Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, a former Russian Defense Ministry official, added: “A step was taken in the direction of cooperation on the economy and arms technology, at least for such defensive systems as the S-300 and S-400.”
Military specialists say the S-400 is vastly superior to the US PAC-3 Patriot missile. It’s believed to be the first system in the world that can selectively use several types of missiles, both previously developed SAMs and the new, unique SAMs. It is mobile, making detection difficult. It can target Strategic bombers such as the B-1, FB-111 and B-52H; Electronic warfare airplanes such as the EF-111A and EA-6; Reconnaissance airplanes such as the TR-1; Early-warning radar airplanes such as the E-3A and E-2C; Fighter airplanes such as the F-15, F-16; Stealth airplanes such as the B-2 and F-117A; Strategic cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk; Ballistic missiles in a range up to 3,500 km.
Furthermore, the Pentagon’s most colossal weapon boondoggle to date, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, was not designed to penetrate the coverage of the S-300P/S-400 systems. Oops….
If the DebkaFile report about S-400 missile system to Iran is true, and it certainly seems to be, then the geopolitics of the entire battle between the Obama Administration and Russia and Iran and Syria, and soon China, is indeed very stupid.
The battle is being led by tunnel-vision warhawks around President Obama such as NSC Adviser Susan Rice. They seem incapable of grasping connections between events, and are, thus, by definition, not intelligent people. It is being led by the US military industrial complex, prominently by Lockheed Martin, main contractor of the disastrous F-35. It is being led by a very rich, power-addicted Oligarchy that somehow thinks they own the world. In fact, as recent events testify, they are losing the world they thought they controlled by their stupidity. Some call it the law of unintended consequences.New Eastern Outlook
Putin and Iran Do a ‘Game Changer’
F. William Engdahl
1 comment:
That would appear to throw a wrench into US plans for regime change in Iran.
We are heading towards a multi-polar world. The US is simply not strong enough militarily and economically to stop it.
Post a Comment