All business between Iran and Russia
The CIA fears that Iran could send new drones to Russia and that Moscow will reciprocate with planes. But the relationship between the two countries does not stop at weapons: the Russians and the Iranians also discuss logistics and energy. Here are the latest news
Interviewed by CBS News , the director of the CIA (the federal intelligence agency of the United States) William Burns spoke with some concern about relations between Iran and Russia. The partnership between the two countries, he said, "is moving at a pretty high speed in a very dangerous direction."
DRONES, MISSILES AND FIGHTING
Burns is referring to the military assets, mainly drones , that Tehran is sending to Moscow to support it in its war on Ukraine. “We know,” he explained to CBS News , “that the Iranians have already supplied hundreds of armed drones to the Russians, who are using them to inflict pain on Ukrainian civilians and on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. We know that they have also supplied ammunition for artillery and tanks”.
According to the director of the CIA, the military collaboration between Iran and Russia could go even further: "we are also seeing signs that […] Russia is proposing to help the Iranians in their missile program, and is considering the possibility of supplying the Iran also fighter planes”.
WHY IS ISRAEL WORRIED
It is an eventuality that worries not only the United States, but also Israel. Indeed, as Andrea Gilli, a researcher at the NATO Defense College explained on Twitter, Iran is fighting a proxy war against Israel through Hezbollah, a Shiite and anti-Zionist political-military organization based in Lebanon.
“Iran,” Gilli wrote , “has been supplying arms and supporting Hezbollah economically and militarily for decades in order to shore up a military threat to Israel. Similarly, Iran has repeatedly pushed Hezbollah over the years to seek military confrontation or launch attacks against Israel. Iran seeks and has tried to hide its material support for Hezbollah, both because this would otherwise be blocked and so as not to be sanctioned”.
Israel, therefore, fears that Russia may provide Iran with the ability to fire long-range missiles, which would allow the latter to more easily hit Israeli (and US) targets in the Middle East. Washington has also been thinking for some time that Moscow could place its own helicopters and Su-35 fighter planes at Tehran's disposal: Iranian pilots have already received the necessary training to fly them.
NOT ONLY IRAN: ALSO NORTH KOREA AND (MAYBE) CHINA
Iran is not the only country to have provided military assistance to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began just over a year ago: North Korea has also done so, while China has offered non- lethal, even if – Burns warns – he could decide to send lethal aid.
– Read also: All affairs between China and Russia. Heritage reports
ALL ENERGY AND LOGISTICS BUSINESS BETWEEN IRAN AND RUSSIA
In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed energy, transport and logistics projects on the phone with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi. The two countries are in fact working on the creation of acommercial corridor between Eastern Europe and the Indian Ocean to facilitate bilateral trade and circumvent sanctions, freeing themselves from European ports and the Suez Canal.
As for energy, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said in December last year that Russian companies are interested in collaborating with Iranian companies in the development and production of gas turbines. Moscow needs it, given that Western companies – on which it depends for the medium and large capacity engines used in the most modern Russian power plants – are withdrawing from the country or have suspended operations.
In the previous months, Russia began sending petroleum products to Iran as part of an exchange agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran – Gazprom for one side, NIOC for the other – for the development of hydrocarbon fields and export facilities with a potential value of 40 billion dollars. Iran has large reserves of natural gas but has difficulty developing them due to US sanctions, which restrict its access to the necessary technologies.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/iran-russia-armi-energia/ on Mon, 27 Feb 2023 10:04:14 +0000.