MOSCOW, July 18 - RAPSI. Russia is trying to persuade Iran to withdraw its Geneva Arbitration Court claim over the scrapping of a 2007 contract for five S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, Kommersant daily reported on Wednesday.

According to Kommersant, the issue was discussed during Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Iran in mid-June. Tehran however refused to withdraw the suit.

Iran's Defense Ministry and The Aerospace Industries Organization, an Iranian state company, launched the $4-billion lawsuit against Russia's state arms corporation Rosoboronexport in the international arbitration court in Geneva on April 13, 2011, seven months after then-president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree terminating the contract, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1929, which bans supply to Iran of conventional weapons including missiles and missile systems, tanks, attack helicopters, warplanes and ships.

Iran has previously applied to the International Court of Justice to try to force Russia to fulfil the terms of the contract or pay compensation. The complaint is curently under examination at the relevant international legal bodies.