DM: Iran Open to Arms Sales to All but Foes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan voiced the country’s openness to sell military equipment to all countries except to those regarded as adversaries.
“Only the markets can demand to have our (military) achievements whose customers are not in the list of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s opponents and enemies. In that case, we will have no problem for sales,” the defense minister told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.
He made the comments when asked about Iran’s response to an alleged request made by Mexico for the purchase of Iranian-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
Following his recent visit to Mexico, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, signaled the Central American country’s willingness to purchase Iranian drones for the use in its war against drug cartels.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Brigadier General Dehqan pointed to Iran’s military gift aid for Lebanon, expressing Tehran’s readiness to provide Beirut with the entire military items it had pledged to offer to the Arab country.
He said delivery of the arms will be subject to the consent of Lebanese government, but noted that Beirut has not made any decision so far.
Lebanese Al Akhbar daily had quoted an unnamed Iranian diplomatic source as saying that the consignment of military equipment will be airlifted to Lebanon within only “three hours” as soon as Beirut gives the green light.
Iran has decided to offer weapons to Lebanon as a gift in order to help it in the fight against the Takfiri terrorists.
Over the past months, Lebanon has been suffering from terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda-affiliated militants as well as random rocket attacks, which are seen as a spillover of the conflict in Syria.
