Satellite view of the Fordo facility near Qom, Iran. Photo: DigitalGlobe.

JNS.org – Iran has deployed the long-range Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system at its Fordo uranium enrichment facility in order to bolster the defense of the site.

Images were broadcast on Iranian state television on Sunday evening of the S-300 launchers being transported by trucks to the Fordo facility, which is south of Iran’s capital Tehran.

“Continued opposition and hype on the S-300 or the Fordo site are examples of the viciousness of the enemy,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state television. “The S-300 system is a defense system, not an assault one, but the Americans did their best for Iran not to get hold of it.”

Russia began delivering the highly advanced S-300 missile system last April, just months after many international sanctions were lifted against the Islamic Republic as a result of the nuclear deal.

The deal to supply Iran with the S-300 was originally signed in 2007, but has been held up for several years due to international sanctions as well as objections by the United States and Israel, who argued that it would make a possible military strike on the site more difficult. There have also been concerns that the system could end up in the hands of Iranian-backed terror groups such as Hezbollah.