Iran is again ready to provide the Russian Aerospace Forces an opportunity to use the Hamadan airbase, the Iranian Defense Minister said.
Photo: Russian Defense Ministry
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said that Tehran can again provide Russian aircraft an opportunity to use the Noje airbase in Hamadan, the Tasnim news agency reported.
“If the situation and conditions [in Syria], under which it is necessary to provide support, require this, we will do this job,” Dehghan said.
According to head of the Council of the Federation Committee on Defense and Security, Viktor Ozerov, the need to re-use the Iranian airbase can occur, if the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, which is currently in the Mediterranean, will be far from the Syrian coasts and it will not be possible to use its deck for carrying out airstrikes on terrorists.
The Russian Aerospace Forces for the first time used the Iranian Hamadan airbase in order to carry out airstrikes on terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) terrorist groups in mid-August.
Shortly thereafter, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that fighter jets, which struck facilities of terrorists in Syria from the Iranian airbase, returned to the territory of Russia. Official representative of the department Igor Konashenkov said that further usage of the airbase would be carried out on the basis of mutual agreements on anti-terrorism efforts, depending on a current situation in Syria.
Since the beginning of the Russian operation in Syria at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015, the Russian air power used the Hmeymim airbase, located on the territory of the Arab country, for carrying out of airstrikes.
