TEHRAN - Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said on Monday Russia is going to deliver an updated version of the missile defense system S-300 to Iran in near future.

Recent talks with Russian officials have led to the conclusion that Moscow will remain faithful to its commitments under a contract signed eight years ago to deliver the missiles, Dehqan said in a press conference in Tehran.

The defense minister said negotiations on the issue have been held in full and a new contract has been drafted which is going to be signed by the two sides within a week.

Four batteries of S-300 are going to be delivered to Iran under the new contract, he added.

According to Dehqan, the contract will specify a date for the delivery of the defense system.

Russia signed the contract in 2007 to sell Iran five S-300 ground-to-air missile systems. The $800-million contract to deliver the systems to Iran was cancelled in 2010 by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, falling in line with the UN sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program.

In turn, Tehran filed a currently pending $4-billion lawsuit against Russia in Geneva's arbitration court. However, Russia President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to lift the ban over delivering the long-overdue systems to Iran on April 13.

Vladislav Menshikov, the CEO of S-300 air defense systems manufacturer Almaz-Antei, said in August 2013 that Russia has dismantled and disposed of the S-300 air defense missile systems originally intended for delivery to Iran and that Russia didn’t produce S-300 anymore.

He had then said that updating the old agreement is a confusing issue and might imply delivering more advanced S-400 missile systems to Iran.

SP/OS