Iran withdraws $4B lawsuit against Russia over missile systems

MOSCOW, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Russia said Tuesday that Iran has withdrawn its $4 billion lawsuit over non-delivery of S-300 missile systems, as they are now being delivered.

In May, Vladimir Kozhin, Russia's presidential aide for Military Technical Cooperation, said only some "legal procedures" remained before the lawsuit would be withdrawn.

On Tuesday, Kozhin told Russian news agency TASS, "Yes, it has been withdrawn."

In 2007, Iran announced it had purchased the Russian S-300PMU-1 systems. In 2011, Russia, under president Dmitry Medvedev, banned the delivery of the weapons, citing a United Nations Security Council resolution that placed an arms embargo on Tehran.

Tehran filed the lawsuit in an international court in Geneva against Russia's arms export agency for failing to fulfill the contract.

In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban. It was shortly after international negotiators and Iran reached a nuclear agreement to remove all economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for its pledge that all nuclear research would only be for peaceful purposes.

Last month, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said it expected Moscow to deliver all weapons by September.

Kozhin told Sputnik the nation has delivered "half already, maybe more."

The S-300, first used by the Soviet Union in 1979, is designed to fire surface-to-air missiles at aerial targets at a range of 185 miles.

It's similar to the U.S.-made Patriot Air and Missile Defense System.