Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a live Q&A program that it was acceptable to lift the ban on selling the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran because Tehran is \u201cdemonstrating a\u00a0lot of\u00a0flexibility and\u00a0an\u00a0obvious desire to\u00a0reach a\u00a0compromise on\u00a0their nuclear program.\u201d \u201cIn\u00a0effect, all participants in\u00a0the\u00a0process have announced that an\u00a0agreement has been reached.<\/p>\n
Now they only have the\u00a0technical details to\u00a0deal with, and\u00a0they will complete this before June. This is why we made this decision,\u201d Putin said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this week there was \u201cno more need\u201d for the 2010 embargo, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif lauded the move by \u201can important partner.\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Putin on Tuesday to warn that the sale would only wreak more havoc in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone fears that we have started cancelling the\u00a0sanctions, apparently our colleagues do not know that the\u00a0supply of\u00a0these systems is not on\u00a0the\u00a0UN list of\u00a0sanctions,\u201d Putin continued in the Q&A, during which he answered 74 audience questions over nearly four hours. \u201cWe suspended this contract absolutely unilaterally.<\/p>\n