The Iranian Defense Ministry accused Russia of providing software control codes on the S-300 missile system to the Israeli military to allow Israel to attack Iran’s terrorist army in the region, Hezbollah. Iran says it changed the codes without Moscow’s knowledge which allowed the launch of a surface to air missile, or SAM, against Israeli aircraft on a recent attack mission against Hezbollah in Syria.
Al-Jarida’s Tehran correspondent, Farzad Qassemi, cited a source in the Iranian Defense Ministry as saying that Iranian experts had changed the operation codes for the Syrian air defense system, which is what enabled the anti-aircraft missiles to be used against the Israeli Air Force on Friday morning, reports the Jerusalem Post.
Iran reportedly had been shocked at the venerable, and expensive, S-300 missile system that Iran had purchased from Russia, did not even pick up Israeli aircraft upon launch from IAF airfields inside the country and did not alert the missile battery when they crossed into Syria’s airspace.
According to the source, the Iranians and the Syrians suspected that Russia gave the codes for the air defense system to Israel and even refused the requests of Tehran and Damascus to check the codes. “Iran has the ability today to change the Russian security codes since it received the advanced Russian S-300,” the source added. “This came after it received reports that Israel got the operation codes for the missile system. In Iran, they even expanded their knowledge when they built the Bavar-373 air defense system – which is a domestic copy of the Russian S-300 – in order that the systems would work together during an attack,” again reports the Jerusalem Post.
“They succeeded in changing some of the codes last month and therefore when the Israel fighter jets took off from their bases – the air defense system succeeded in identifying them and firing interceptor missiles at them and at the missiles they had launched…the Syrian radar treated Israeli fighter jets as friendly planes in the past and not as enemy planes, which proves that Israel knew the codes of the missile system.”
