According to a report from the Washington Post, military officials in Tehran have agreed to assist Russia in manufacturing explosive drones on the Russian soil.
This Saturday, a report from the Washington Post, citing Western officials, revealed that during the past weeks, the government in Iran has expressed its agreement to help Russians build attack drones on the Russian territory. As the report noted, the production of Iranian drones is expected to be operational within a few months.
In addition, there has even been signed an agreement between the two countries on the matter, according to the report. “Russian and Iranian officials finalized the deal during a meeting in Iran in early November, and the two countries are moving rapidly to transfer designs and key components that could allow production to begin within months,” the report said.
“The agreement, if fully realized, would represent a further deepening of a Russia-Iran alliance that already has provided crucial support for Moscow’s faltering military campaign in Ukraine,” it also added.
This development in the Russian drone manufacturing capabilities is expected dramatically increase Russia’s stockpile of relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems that, in recent weeks, have changed the character of the Ukraine war.
Good to mention that according to reports from Ukrainian and US intelligence officials, the Russian military has deployed more than 400 Iranian-made attack drones against Ukraine since August. On the other side, many western countries have sent considerable amount of help, both financially and militarily, to Ukraine since the war started in February.
This shows that Russia has shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities, using a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to gain the upper hand in the war.
As the report further noted, the agreement with Tehran can very well fill a critical need for Moscow for its precision-guided munitions, which are in short supply after nine months of fighting in the battlefield with Ukraine. It is also of great economic and political benefits for Iran as Russia may need even more drones during the war.
Iran rejects allegations
In response to questions about the reported technology-sharing arrangement with Russia, Iran’s U.N. mission in New York declined to address the specific allegations. But a spokesman later acknowledged that Iran and Russia have “maintained bilateral defense, scientific, and research cooperation, that predates the start of the Ukrainian conflict which is by no means against any norm in international law.”
Iran has continuously denied any transfer of explosive drones to Russia during the war with Ukraine.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has taken a clear and consistent position on the situation in Ukraine which has been pronounced since the start of the conflict,” Iran’s Ambassador to UN Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters last month in October. “Iran has consistently advocated for peace and the immediate end to the conflict in Ukraine and the claims about sending drones to Russia are unfounded and unsubstantiated,” he also noted.
Iranian officials have even requested a joint expert meeting with Ukraine authorities to consider such allegations and prove that what has been said in this regard lack factual basis.
