Iran has given Russia a significant quantity of potent surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, strengthening the military alliance between the two sanctioned nations by the United States, according to sources.
Iran is supplying about 400 missiles, many of which are from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, which includes the Zolfaghar, said the sources. According to experts, this road-mobile missile can hit targets between 300 and 700 km (186 and 435 miles) away.
According to one of the Iranian sources, the shipments started in early January following an agreement reached in late-December meetings between Russian and Iranian military and security officials in Moscow and Tehran. According to an Iranian military official, at least four missile shipments have already occurred and more are scheduled for the upcoming weeks. Some of the missiles were transported by air, while others were shipped to Russia via the Caspian Sea.
“There will be more shipments,” the second Iranian official said. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to.”
October marked the expiration of UN Security Council sanctions prohibiting Iran from exporting certain drones, missiles, and other technologies. Nonetheless, because of worries about Iran selling weapons to its allies in the Middle East and to Russia, the US and the EU continued to impose sanctions on the country’s ballistic missile programme.
A fourth person with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Russia had recently received a significant quantity of missiles from Iran, but they did not elaborate.
