White House: Russia Lifting Missile Ban to Iran Raises ‘Serious Concerns’

EARNEST: “We have seen those reports as they relate to the possible sale of the S-300 anti-ballistic missile system to Iran. United States has previously made known our objections to that sale, and I understand that Secretary Kerry had an opportunity to raise these concerns once again in a recent conversation with his Russian counterpart, Mr. Lavrov. I'm not in a position to obviously speculate on the decision-making process that Russia is engaged in right now but I do think it's safe to say that Russia understands that the United States certainly takes very seriously the safety and security of our allies in the region.

As it relates to the other oil for goods discussion, this is something that's been -- this is the discussion that has been underway for several months now and we got us even aware that there are proposals involving Russia and Iran to essentially [indecipherable] Iranian oil for Russian goods. We are just -- we're studying the details and if this sort of arrangement were to move forward, it would raise serious concerns and even could potentially raise sanctions concerns. So we're going to continue to evaluate that moving forward as well."