Reuters: Iran refused to sell more powerful Arash kamikaze drones to Russia to prevent the US from getting access to the technology
- Author:
- Oleksiy Yarmolenko
- Date:
Iran refused to supply more powerful Arash-2 kamikaze drones to Russia. They donʼt want the US to get access to these technologies.
Reuters writes about this with reference to sources.
Among the reasons why the Iranians rejected Putinʼs request, they cite "technical problems" as well as concerns about such technology reaching the United States.
The Arash-2 kamikaze combat drones have a wingspan of up to 4 meters, a length of up to 4.5 meters, and a range of up to 1,000 km, and according to some sources, 1,600 km. Their warhead can be several times larger than that of the Shahed-136.
At the same time, Iranian sources confirmed that at the beginning of October, they agreed with the Russians in Moscow on the supply of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar short-range missiles. The Russians asked for hundreds of such missiles, but Iran agreed to supply only a few hundred. They will arrive in two or three batches in the coming weeks.
Iran assures that they are selling weapons to Russia, but where they are used is not their business. They emphasize that they do not support either side and call for a diplomatic settlement of the war in Ukraine. However, in the West, such sales are considered a violation of the UN Security Council resolution, which imposed sanctions on Iran and approved the adoption of the nuclear agreement. At the beginning of the year, the West held talks with Iran to renew the deal, but they have reached an impasse, and the arms sales to Russia could be completely derailed.
- After the downing of the first Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 attack drones, Ukraine stripped Iranʼs Ambassador Manouchehr Moradi of his accreditation and reduced the number of diplomatic personnel. In response, Iran advised Ukraine "not to listen to third parties". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on Iran to stop military aid to Russia and not to hide behind statements about alleged "external influence".
- Ukrainian special services reported that Russian troops purposefully launched Shahed-136 over Uman to attack Hasidic Jews. They believe that attacks on Jews are one of the conditions for Iranʼs transfer of drones to Russia.
- The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Nasser Kanani, publicly denied the supply of its military drones to the Russian army. Even despite the fact that the Ukrainian military has already shot down dozens of such drones.
- According to American intelligence, Iran is now preparing to supply the Russians with its Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 300 and 700 kilometers.