ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—In televised remarks late on Sunday Iran’s defense minister said that Russia revealing its use of an Iranian airbase for its air campaign in Syria was “inconsiderate”.
“Naturally, the Russians are keen to show that they are a superpower and an influential country and that they are active in security issues in the region and the world,” said Hossein Dehghan, Iran’s defense minister.
“There has been a kind of showing-off and inconsiderate attitude behind the announcement of this news,” he added.
Speaking more broadly about Russia’s military activities in Iran Dehghan pointed out that Iran has “collaborated and will continue to collaborate with Syria and Russia. Russia decided to bring in more planes and boost its speed and accuracy in operations.”
“Therefore, it needed to refuel in an area closer to the operation. That’s why they used the Nojeh base [in Hamadan[ but we have definitely not given them a military base.”
When it was revealed last week that Russia was using Iran’s airbase at Hamadan for its long-range Tu-22 bombers, which are participating in the Russian air campaign in Syria, questions about the legality of that move arose in the Iranian parliament. Under Article 146 of Iran’s constitution Tehran is forbidden from hosting foreign military powers, even during peace time.
The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Ali Larijani, insisted last Wednesday that Russia will not have any permanent military base in Iran and stressed that Tehran has “cooperated with Russia, as it is our ally on regional issues, especially on Syrian issues.”
“We have good cooperation with Russia and we say it loud and clear,” he added.
Flying long-range bombers from Iran to Syria rather than directly from Russia for bombing runs significantly decreases the flying time the Russians need to bomb Syria. Russia does have an airbase in Syria’s western Latakia province, but that base does not host heavy bombers like the Tu-22.
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