TEHRAN (ISNA)- Commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili reiterated that the country�s air defense does not rely on S-300 missile system.

�The air defense does not rely on S-300. We are among six major countries producing radars with the range of 3.000 kilometers,� he said, adding that that the country�s air defense systems have been optimized, and air defense forces are trained inside the country.

He further noted that Bavar 373 (Belief 373) system (the Iranian version of S-300 missile) would be launched by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (which started on March 21, 2015).

On April 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran.

The decision to lift the ban comes after Iran and the G5+1 group of countries � the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran�s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

The two sides ended their latest round of talks at the deputy and expert levels in Vienna, Austria, on April 24. The three-day talks were held with the goal of drafting the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) based on the mutual understanding reached in Lausanne.

Moscow had banned the delivery of the S-300 system to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement it signed with Iran in 2007 was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The resolution bars hi-tech weapons sales to the Islamic Republic

By ISNA