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Iran: Russia Is No Longer Using Our Air Base For Strikes On Syria

“They did this (operation) and it is finished for now.”
SYRIA - AUGUST 16, 2016: A Tupolev Tu-22M3 long-range bomber carries out airstrikes against ISIS and Al-Nusra Front targets in the Aleppo, Dayr al-Zawr and Idlib Governorates. This is the first time Russia's Aerospace Forces carry out air strikes against terrorist targets in Syria operating from Iran's Hamedan Air Base. Earlier, the Russian Aerospace Forces' long-range bombers used to take off at Russian airfields and frontline bombers at Hmeymim airbase in Syria. Video screen grab/Russian Defence Ministry's Press and Information Department/TASS (Photo by TASS\TASS via Getty Images)
TASS via Getty Images
SYRIA - AUGUST 16, 2016: A Tupolev Tu-22M3 long-range bomber carries out airstrikes against ISIS and Al-Nusra Front targets in the Aleppo, Dayr al-Zawr and Idlib Governorates. This is the first time Russia's Aerospace Forces carry out air strikes against terrorist targets in Syria operating from Iran's Hamedan Air Base. Earlier, the Russian Aerospace Forces' long-range bombers used to take off at Russian airfields and frontline bombers at Hmeymim airbase in Syria. Video screen grab/Russian Defence Ministry's Press and Information Department/TASS (Photo by TASS\TASS via Getty Images)

Iran said on Monday that Russia has stopped using an Iranian air base for strikes in Syria, a week after Moscow announced that its fighter bombers had flown from a base in Iran to hit targets in Syria.

“Russia has no base in Iran and is not stationed here. They did this (operation) and it is finished for now,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers used Nojeh air base, near the city of Hamedan, in north-west Iran to launch the air strikes last week, in a move which underscored Moscow’s increasingly close ties with Tehran.

But the deployment - the first time a foreign power has used an Iranian base since World War Two - triggered criticism from some Iranian parliamentarians who said it breached the Islamic Republic’s constitution.

Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan dismissed that criticism on Sunday, but also chided Moscow for publicising the move, describing it as showing off and a “betrayal of trust.”

“We have not given any military base to the Russians and they are not here to stay,” Dehghan was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

He said there has been “no written agreement” between the two countries and the “operational cooperation” was temporary and limited to refueling.

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