Tehran, Moscow Building Drone Manufacturing Plant In Russia
The US has released damning intelligence showing Tehran and Moscow building a drone manufacturing plant in Russia for use in Ukraine.
The US has released damning intelligence showing Tehran and Moscow building a drone manufacturing plant in Russia for use in Ukraine.
On Friday, White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, said: “This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community. We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities including by sharing this with the public — and we are prepared to do more.”
Providing further proof for the deepening military relationship between Russia and Iran, The White House released satellite imagery of the planned location of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, about 600 miles (nearly 1,000 kilometers) east of Moscow. The satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant was taken on April 3.
“We have information that Russia is receiving materials from Iran needed to build a UAV manufacturing plant inside Russia,” said Kirby, who claims the plant could be fully operational early next year.
The intelligence confirmed data by a Wall Street Journal report in February that the two countries had plans to build such a factory, which could make at least 6,000 drones for the war in Ukraine.
Another declassified government graphic shows the drones are built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea to Russia — with a port Iran helped develop — and then transferred to two air bases. “The support is flowing both ways: from Iran to Russia, and from Russia to Iran,” Kirby said.
Kirby added that in response, Russia has offered Iran “unprecedented” defense cooperation, including billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment such as Su-35 fighter jets, attack helicopters, radars and Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft.
According to Kirby, Washington will continue to impose sanctions on the entities involved in the transfer of Iranian military equipment. This is in addition to new steps the Biden administration, along with the European Union and the United Kingdom, has already taken to restrict the transfer of electronic components found in Iranian drones to the battlefield in Ukraine.
Already dozens of individuals and entities involved in sending Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones to Russia have been sanctioned by the United States and Europe. Russia has already used hundreds of these drones to attack military and civilian targets in Ukraine, or to try to overwhelm air defenses during its large-scale missile attacks on cities.
He said the US has released the information in order to the public “to expose and disrupt” the countries’ “full-scale defense partnership.”
A senior administration official -- who asked for anonymity -- told Politico that “Actors like Iran want this kind of behavior to be secret. We are shining a light on it publicly to let Iran know we are aware of exactly what they’re doing, and to build pressure on Iran internationally, having alerted other countries to Iran’s actions."
Kirby added that the administration also plans to announce “a new government advisory to help businesses and other governments better understand the risks posed by Iran’s [unmanned aerial vehicle] program and the illicit practices Iran uses to procure components for it.”
“This will help governments and businesses put in place measures to ensure they are not inadvertently contributing to Iran’s UAV program,” he stated.
The rial this week broke through the important psychological barrier of 500,000 against the US dollar, as several media reports spoke of secret contacts with the United States to reach a sort of an interim agreement that would unblock more than $15 billion of Iran’s frozen funds.
The US denied the reports of a deal on Thursday, although it did not reject reports of ongoing contacts. Tehran’s currency market was officially closed on Friday, so the impact of the US announcement, if any, will be felt on Saturday.
Commentators speaking to local media in Tehran said that releasing even $20 billion will not affect the fundamentals of a weak economy and would represent a temporary respite from the pain of oil export sanctions.
Sajjad Burbur, an Iran-based economist, speaking to the reformist Aftab News website Friday warned of the fast-galloping money supply in the country and predicted that eventually the rial can fall further, reaching 700,000 against the US dollar.
Burbur argued that the Islamic Republic has no means of addressing the economic crisis except “therapy talk”, meaning trying to put a good face on the state of affairs and present exaggerated or fake news.
He argued that the government continues to print money to pay its bills, and this will inevitably devalue the currency. “In 2018, the money supply was less than half of all liquidity, but now it is far more than that. All factors that help the dollar rise against the rial have converged together,” he pointed out.
With far less oil export income because of US sanctions, the government continues to print money and makes daily statements to calm the markets.
Promises of close economic cooperation with Russia and China and hints of talks with the United States are designed to boost confidence in the economy, but experts point out that these will not have a lasting impact and economic fundamentals will have the last word.
With annual inflation approaching 70 percent, affording housing and food has become impossible for millions of families.
Housing specially has risen more than ten-fold in the past five years, while salaries have increased at most five-fold.
Owners see their property as a hedge against inflation and adjust prices and rents according to the value of the US dollar, while people’s income is far less.
The average price for one square meter of an apartment in Tehran is around $1,000, roughly the same as in 2018 before the rial bean to fall. People are migrating out of large cities and commuting long distances just to afford rents.
The former chairman of Iran’s central bank, Abdolnasser Hemmati, in a tweet on Friday asked President Ebrahim Raisi why real estate inflation numbers have been withheld by the government in the past five months.
“Do you know anything about how much rents have gone up?” Hemmati asked the president.
Some people hold a full-time job just to pay the rent, while either they or their spouses must work a second job just to afford food. The average worker has a monthly salary of $150, down from $220 last year when the rial was higher at around 300,000 to the dollar.
During a joint presser with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on his last day his visit on Thursday, Blinken said Washington and Riyadh, together with the GCC, are “focused on Iran’s destabilizing influence in the region, including its support for terrorism and violent militia groups, the seizure of tankers transiting international waters, and nuclear escalation.”
While the United States and Iran both denied reports that they were nearing an interim deal Thursday, Blinken added that “the United States continues to believe that diplomacy, backed by economic pressure, by deterrence, and by strong defense cooperation, is the best way to avoid and counter these dangerous actions.”
He noted that the US supports efforts by Saudi Arabia to de-escalate tension and stabilize relations, without elaborating on details.
Among the main points on agenda in Blinken’s trip was pushing Riyadh for normalize ties with Israel, about which his Saudi counterpart said that “it’s quite clear that we believe that normalization is in the interest of the region, that it would bring significant benefits to all.”
However, he added “without finding a pathway to peace for the Palestinian people, without addressing that challenge, any normalization will have limited benefits.”