Iran rejects US claims about Tehran-Moscow space cooperation

Tehran, March 5 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has rejected claims by US officials about Tehran's space cooperation with Moscow as "baseless".

Kanaani was reacting to the claims made by US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, in which he had described the recent launch of an Iranian satellite by Russia as "another indication of the deepening military partnership" between the two countries, which was "harmful to Ukraine, Iran's neighbours and the international community".

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday said that the defence and military cooperation between Iran and Russia were based on international laws and regulations as well as the two countries' common interests, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is the right of countries to cooperate within the framework of international regulations and laws. We categorically reject the claims made by the U.S. authorities and consider them baseless," Kanaani stressed.

He added the cooperation would continue within its framework and was not against any third party.

Iran on Thursday successfully put a domestically developed satellite, dubbed Pars-1, into a 500-km orbit via a Soyuz rocket launch in eastern Russia.