TEHRAN - A senior Iranian military commander has criticized Russia for its failure to deliver a missile defense system known as S-300 to Iran, saying Moscow has delayed the delivery for more than six months.

“We are unhappy with the Russian friends up north,” the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, said on Thursday.
“Why don’t the defensive S-300 missiles get permission to be sent for Iran’s defense purpose as agreed between the two countries?” he asked.
He added, “It has been more than six months that they should have been delivered to Iran by Russia.”
“Don’t the Russian strategists take into consideration Iran’s geopolitical importance?” he asked.
The S-300 system, which can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 km (75 miles) away, features high jamming immunity and is able to simultaneously engage up to 100 targets.
The truck-mounted S-300PMU1, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. It can fire at targets up to 150 km (90 miles) away and travel at more than two km per second.
The head of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi has also raised fears that Russia would renege on the missile deal, saying that would be a “new chapter in breaking promises by the Russians”.
Firouzabadi also expressed support for the idea of sending nuclear fuel abroad for enrichment.
A draft deal with the major powers, including the U.S, Russia, and other powers calls on Iran to send 75 percent of its uranium abroad to be turned into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that makes isotopes for cancer treatment.
But Iran has not signed up to the deal as some officials say Tehran might prefer to buy reactor fuel from foreign suppliers.
“We will not be harmed by exchange of (nuclear) fuel. Rather by receiving fuel with 20 percent enrichment as needed by the reactor, some one million people would take advantage of its medical benefits annually,” Firouzabadi explained