Even as Iran denies $500M arms deal with Armenia, foothold in Caucasus is priority

TEHRAN — Iran's ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, denied a recent report that Tehran has signed a deal to sell Yerevan military equipment provide training worth $500 million. 

The envoy, cited by Iran's ISNA News Agency, was reacting to a report this week from the London-based Persian-language opposition TV, Iran International, which detailed the agreement based on information shared by "a senior military official in the Middle East."

The report noted that the deal had been closed in recent months and covered a variety of such Iranian-made suicide drones as Shahed and Mohajer, as well as air defense systems Majid and Arman. The same deal, the report claimed, has gone beyond military equipment and includes Tehran's provision of military training to Armenian forces, as well as the opening of Iranian bases on Armenian soil. 

The Iranian ambassador asserted that the report had been published by an "unreliable" source with "a history of releasing falsities and biased analyses about the Islamic Republic."