Russia’s commitments to Iran

Sir, – The Russian commitment to deliver "one of the world's most advanced air defence systems" to Iran by year's end ("Putin unblocks sale of S-300 to Iran", April 14th) is evidently another phase in Vladimir Putin's ambitious plan to re-establish Russia as an equal actor in the Middle East. It is yet another example of a renewed Russian military expansion that reinforces last year's aggression against the Ukraine, which was essentially the modern-day manifestation of an imperialist land-grab conducted under the imprimatur of its new tsar.

Mr Putin’s rush to ally Russia with Iran and supply it with a missile system, which without too much effort could be diverted from a putative defence system to an offensive one capable of carrying nuclear warheads, also substantiates Israel’s concern about a nuclear Iran.

The Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz articulated the Jewish state’s long-standing fear about Teheran’s military expansion, arguing that the sale of S-300s to Iran “was a direct result of the legitimisation that Iran is receiving from the nuclear deal”.

By effectively ruling out an Israeli defensive first-strike, it negates the military strategy of the Jewish state, leaving it vulnerable to Iranian aggression. This is Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s doomsday scenario, and while it remains only a theoretical proposition at the moment, the determination of any Israeli premier, past, present and future, has always been predicated on a single principle, “Never again”.

READ MORE

This resolve should not be glibly dismissed as alarmist by western commentators, and Russia’s highly dangerous game of brinkmanship should concern all of us in a way that has not happened since the height of the Cold War. – Yours, etc,

Dr KEVIN McCARTHY,

Kinsale,

Co Cork.