This NYT piece on Russia and Iran lacks any source for the main claim made in its headline and repeated in its first paragraph:

Iran Revokes Russia’s Use of Air Base, Saying Moscow ‘Betrayed Trust’

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Iran on Monday annulled permission
for Russian planes to fly bombing runs into Syria from an Iranian base,
only a week after having granted such extraordinary access, saying that
the Kremlin had been unacceptably public and arrogant about the
privilege.
…
Iran’s minister of defense, Brig. Gen. Hossein
Dehghan, accused Russia of having publicized the deal excessively,
calling the Kremlin’s behavior a “betrayal of trust” and
“ungentlemanly.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, told
reporters in Tehran that the permission had been temporary and “it is
finished, for now.”

There is no source quoted in the piece that claims Iran “revoked” or
“annulled permission”. That is not too astonishing as no such claims
were ever made in Iran. But how can the NYT claim that?

What really happened:

Russia has been using the Iranian Hamedan airbase on-and-off since at least
last November. It is a way station and refueling point on flights from
Russia to Syria and it was used to repair Russian airplanes that had
this or that troubles:

A Russian Su-34 bomber landed at Hamadan Air Base on
November 23rd, 2015. Most likely the Su-34 plane was en route to Syria
and had a technical issue, preferring to land safely at Hamadan. There
it was met by a technical team which arrived on November 24th, 2015,
aboard an IL-76 cargo plane, and made repairs. Both planes left the
Hamadan airbase.

Earlier this month Russia sent heavy long range bomber to Hamedan.
There they refueled and were armed with large bomb loads. They flew the
short trip to Syria to destroyed al-Qaeda positions in Idlib province.
Russia, as well as Iran, knew that “western” governments would notice
the stationing of the bombers. The planes are big and easily visible on
satellite pictures. To preempt western propaganda over the issue they
publicly announced the arrival.

Iran is traditionally very opposed to any foreign troops on its
ground. Some 20 conservative opposition politicians in the Iranian
parliament used the announcement to question the “moderate” Rohani
government. Yesterday the Iranian defense minister lamented that the
Russian announcement of the airbase use, made with Iranian knowledge,
was too loud and too public. He now had to answer questions from
parliament and no minister anywhere likes to do that. At no point did he
claim that anything was “revoked”. Meanwhile, and unrelated to the
issue, the Russian’s bombers were on their way home from their first
round of sorties flown out of Hamedan.

This was a purely internal Iranian tussle
and the Rouhani government only wanted to quiet the opposition on the
issue. The remark by the defense minister was about style, not
substance. How the NYT got from there to reporting that Iran “revoked”
something is inexplicable.

Russian jets and bombers will soon be back in Hamedan, though now probably without big press announcements. Here is the confirmation from one of the highest ranking politicians in Iran:

Speaker of the Iranian Parliament has emphasized that
flights of Russian fighter aircraft are still being performed from Nojeh
airbase in Hamedan.
Ali Larijani made the remarks during the Parliament open session on
Tuesday morning, when answering the comments of MP Mahmoud Sadeghi.
…
In response to the MP’s comments, Ali Larijani underlined that Russian
jets are still carrying out military missions from the Iranian airbase;
“Iran holds cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism and
the alliance between the two countries would benefit Muslims in the
region.”

Like with many of its other reports on Syria and Iran this NYT piece was again nearer to fiction than fact.

For the reality of the ongoing war, on the ground reported pieces
based on local and historic knowledge are much more valuable than
anything “western” mainstream media provide. To really understand the
ongoing conflicts and alliances, non-mainstream pieces like this one – Washington’s Sunni Myth and the Middle East Undone – are invaluable and highly recommended. misreports

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