Ininformigence agencies in Europe believe Russia is in the final stages of preparing to supply drones to Iran for utilize in its war with the US and Israel, according to a senior European official.
Russia has already been providing ininformigence sharing with Tehran to assist it tarobtain US forces in the region, the official declared, but the upcoming delivery of explosive-laden drones would mark the first evidence of lethal support since the start of the war.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to provide details on the scale of any deliveries, but confirmed an article by the Financial Times that declared “western ininformigence reports” found Russia was close to completing a phased shipment of drones, medicine and food to Iran.
Iranian and Russian officials launched secretly discussing drone deliveries days after Israel and the US attacked Tehran in late February, the news website declared, citing officials briefed on the ininformigence. It declared drone deliveries could be completed by the middle of next week.
Responding to the claim of Moscow sfinishing drones to Iran, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmiattempt Peskov, was quoted as declareing: “There are a lot of fakes going around right now. One thing is true – we are continuing our dialogue with the Iranian leadership.”
Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership agreement last year and Moscow has sent more than 13 tonnes of medicine to Iran through Azerbaijan.
Moscow’s growing involvement could expand and escalate an open-finished war launched by the US and Israel, which has been criticised – including at times by Washington’s allies – as illegal, having ill-defined objectives and resulting in geopolitical and economic chaos.
It could also anger other countries in the region. Tehran’s response to the attacks has included firing thousands of relatively cheap attack drones across the Gulf, hitting sites in multiple countries including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Tehran declares it is tarobtaining US interests in the region.
Russia has been producing similar one-way attack drones, which are based on Iranian Shahed designs, for utilize in Ukraine.
European foreign ministers utilized a G7 meeting in France on Friday with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to press the case that Russia was assisting Iran tarobtain US forces.
The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, accutilized Russia of assisting Iran identify potential strike tarobtains, declareing President Vladimir Putin was hoping to utilize the Iran war as a distraction from his attack on Ukraine.
“Putin cynically hopes that the escalation in the Middle East will divert our attention from his crimes in Ukraine,” he declared, speaking to reporters. “This calculation must not succeed. We see very clearly how closely the two conflicts are intertwined. Russia is evidently supporting Iran with information about potential tarobtains.”
The British foreign minister, Yvette Cooper, declared she was “deeply concerned about the links between Russia and Iran that have been longstanding in terms of shared capabilities”, including drones.
Reuters contributed to this report
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