WASHINGTON—Iran is making ready to supply Russia with drones for the battlefield in Ukraine, in addition to coaching for its forces to make use of them, a senior White House official stated Monday.
National safety adviser
Jake Sullivan
stated the U.S. has info that Tehran “is preparing to provide Russia with up to several 100 UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline.”
At a briefing for reporters, Mr. Sullivan stated Iran was making ready to coach Russian troops to make use of them, starting as quickly as early this month.
“It’s unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already,” he stated, utilizing the abbreviation for an unmanned aerial car.
Mr. Sullivan stated the U.S. “will continue to do our part to help sustain the effective defense of Ukraine and to help the Ukrainians show that the Russian effort to try to wipe Ukraine off the map cannot succeed.”
He additionally stated the U.S. has “confidence that the bravery of the Ukrainians and the support of the West to Ukraine will enable Ukraine to effectively defend and sustain its capital.”
Monday’s briefing by Mr. Sullivan is one other occasion of the Biden administration’s apply of publicizing intelligence on Russian actions that might sometimes be reserved for high coverage makers.
In latest months, the administration declassified updates on Russian troop actions, allegations that Moscow would stage a pretext for its eventual invasion of Ukraine, and later stories of rising rigidity between Russian President
Vladimir Putin
and his generals.
White House officers name the technique “downgrade and share”—with “downgrade” referring to decreasing the classification stage of U.S. paperwork or information.
The U.S. and its European allies have given billions of {dollars} in navy assist to the Kyiv authorities, together with superior rocket programs to be used within the Donbas area.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday.
“It’s not clear what kinds of drones Russia may be trying to acquire, which may include anything from loitering munitions to larger armed combat drones,” stated
Michael Kofman,
director of Russia research at
CNA,
a nonprofit analysis group primarily based in Arlington, Va. “The Russian military as a whole has lost a large number of reconnaissance drones in this war and may be looking to Iran to backfill these losses.”
Iran has developed a complicated drone program lately, and the U.S. and its allies have blamed Tehran and its proxies for drone assaults on U.S. forces within the area and regional allies, together with in opposition to a U.S. base in Syria in October.
A senior U.S. Treasury Department official described Iranian drones as a risk to worldwide peace and stability. Last yr, the U.S. levied sanctions in opposition to Iranian firms and their executives that it stated have been related to drone improvement.
Tehran’s engineers have relied on imported elements to create drones that may precisely strike targets at lengthy distance and quickly change course to keep away from air defenses and radar, stated European and Middle Eastern safety officers who’ve studied wreckages of the drones.
“Developing a nuclear weapon would take years. With drones, just a few months,” an Iranian official informed The Wall Street Journal final yr. “Drones have changed the balance of power in the Middle East.”
Write to Catherine Lucey at [email protected]
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Appeared within the July 12, 2022, print version as ‘Iran to Give Moscow Armed Drones: U.S..’
Source: www.wsj.com”