US warns of deepening Iran-Russia military cooperation
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The White House released new information in a special assessment this week, alleging deepening ties between Iran and Russia’s military hardware production.
According to the Biden administration, Iran is involved in the construction of a drone-manufacturing plant, the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, near Kazan, Russia.
Iran has also shipped “hundreds” of military drones for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since last summer. US analysts now say that Tehran has asked for Russian military hardware in return, including “additional combat and trainer aircraft, as well as attack helicopters, air defense systems, military radars and militarily sensitive electronics, equipment totaling in the ‘billions of dollars’,” the Washington Post reports.
“This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors and to the international community,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said this week.
On Friday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said these drones enabled “Russia’s prosecution of its brutal war against Ukraine.”
She added that Russia and Iran’s actions violate UN Security Council Resolution No. 2231, “which prohibits all countries – including permanent members of the UN Security Council – from transferring these types of weapons from Iran.”
The US Commerce, State, Justice and Treasury Departments released a special advisory note urging American companies to ensure that they are inadvertently supplying electronics or other parts to Iran’s drone-production.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an official added that Iran is reliant on some US products for its drones, “in particular on US-branded field-programmable gate arrays, radio frequency transceivers, microcontrollers and capacitors, some of which are low-technology items,” and thus may not be included on export-control lists of the Commerce Department.