Tracing Iran Drone Parts A Game Of ‘Whack A Mole’
A Quebec-based company has passed to the government its internal report on how its engines ended up in Iranian-made drones used by Russia in Ukraine.
A Quebec-based company has passed to the government its internal report on how its engines ended up in Iranian-made drones used by Russia in Ukraine.
Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), best known for water-skis and snowmobiles, said it has established through a “thorough investigation” set up three months ago that an engine found in a shot-down Mohajer-6 drone had not been sold directly to either Iran or Russia.
A company spokeswoman said this week that Bombardier was “in full compliance with all laws and regulations,” but disclosed nothing substantive in public about its investigation. The drone used the Rotax-912 engine made by BRP-Rotax, a subsidiary based in Gunskirchen, upper Austria.
Bombardier ended supplies of the engines to Iran in 2019, although the Mahtabal company in Tehran still markets itself as official representative for Rotax engines. The date – 2019 – suggests this was a response to the United States 2018 introduction of ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions that threatened punitive action against third parties dealing with Iran. The engines, made primarily for recreational use, would not have been covered by a partial United Nations arms embargo on Iran that expired October in October 2020.
‘Unclear usage’
But in 2020, Bombardier also barred sales to Turkey and announced it would stop sending engines to “countries with unclear usage.” This followed reports its engines were used by Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drones deployed by Azerbaijani forces in war with Armenia.
Ironically, Bayraktar TB-2 drones are currently used by Ukraine against Russian forces, while a British defense analyst in November identified from a photograph an engine from a Bombardier jet ski in a Ukrainian marine unmanned vehicle recovered by Russian forces in Crimea.
Whilst media coverage of Iranian-made parts in Russian drones led to outcry from politicians in north America and western Europe, the manufacturers’ reactions reflect the difficulty, and expense, in tracing where sold goods end up. Engines suitable for light-weight drones are cheap and readily accessible, while categorizing equipment as having a potential military application is near impossible. After decades of sanctions, Iranian buyers are adept at sourcing materials and even proud of it – Iran Press News Agency last year reported that the Shaheed-129 drone, “an efficient bird,” used the Rotax-914 engine.
There has been no public report from a US task force – involving departments of State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, and Treasury – launched December by President Joe Biden after the United Kingdom-based Conflict Armament Research said 82 percent of parts in shot-down Russian drones in Ukraine came from US companies. Texas Instruments, whose processors were in the drones, said it compliedwith “applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate.”
Dmitri Alperovitch, former chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told CNN December that while US firms could do more to track their supply chains, end-buyers could easily switch middle-men – creating a “a game of whack a mole.”
‘Inflammatory actions’
Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel said Friday that Israel’s proposed transfer of missile-defense technology had been delayed by the government handover. New prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sworn in two weeks ago, has long celebrated a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has argued that any weapons sent to Ukraine would fall into Russian hands and reach Iran.
Both Europol and European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva have warned of the dangers of weapons sent to Ukraine ending up in the wrong hands, with Canada among the countries warning it had no effective means to track them.
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow January 17 – a meeting the Russian foreign ministry has said will focus on boosting trade. In an interview with Izvestia published Thursday, Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali repeated Tehran’s official line that while the root of the Ukraine crisis was “inflammatory actions of Nato,” there was no way forward in military confrontation.
In a Thursday letter to Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice-President, the signatories also urged the EU to expand its sanctions list with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and other individuals responsible for violations of human rights.
They also want coordinated efforts to facilitate measures to ensure the safety of the Iranian diaspora in the EU and restrict the access of sanctioned Iranian individuals’ family members to European facilities such as universities.
In the letter, they also asked Borrell to clearly communicate that further executions of Iranian protesters would lead to additional restrictive measures, including economic sanctions.
Stressing the necessity of the correct application and enforcement of the sanctions regime, they emphasized on the Islamic Republic's “despicable role” in the Russian invasion of Ukraine by supplying arms and other means of support. “This fact has to be taken into account, as Iran is thus aiding a criminal Russian state, which keeps on terrorizing the people of Ukraine through relentless bombing of civilians and critical infrastructure,” they said.
Moreover, according to draft documents seen by POLITICO, the EU is considering fresh sanctions against nearly 40 Iranian individuals and entities. There are overall 27 EU documents which are called an “evidence pack,” as they include the information — mostly press reports — backing up the proposed sanctions.
There are 17 people the EU is thinking of sanctioning, including regional governors, a lawmaker, a minister and a top official at the state broadcaster (IRIB) World Service, as well as several current and former officials in the IRGC over their key role in the government’s repression. The list also included Sports Minister Hamid Sajjadi Hazaveh, who the document says is “responsible for pressurizing Iran’s athletes into silence, to prevent them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran.” “He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber that competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in the fall of 2022,” read the document.
About 20 entities are also on the list, including Iran’s Communication Regulation Authority (CRA), which “enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter Internet content through a spyware called SIAM” and the Ravin Academy, a body that has trained hackers “involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime.” Twelve regional corps of the IRGC are also included.
EU countries — led by Germany, France and the Netherlands — have separately been discussing whether to go ahead and label IRGC a “terrorist organization.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted in support on Monday, saying the move “is politically important and makes sense.” France has also kept the door open to the idea.
The United States has already designated the IRGC as a terrorist group and the UK is set to follow suit soon, as members of its House of Commons on Thursday unanimously voted for a motion that urges the government to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization.