DHAKA: A top Russian weapons maker said on Thursday that the S-300 air defence missile systems made for Iran had been dismantled and disposed of following Western pressure to shelf the contract.

‘The hardware that was destined for Iran no longer exists,’ general director of Russian weapons manufacturer Almaz-Antey Vladislav Menshchikov told reporters, according to The Straits Times.

‘We have dismantled it completely. Separate elements, what could be used have been used,’ he said, adding that some other parts have been destroyed.

‘This is absolutely reliable information,’ he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

BDST: 1922 HRS, AUG 29, 2013
RoR/RIS