Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the House Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, acknowledged Iran’s military aid to Russia amid the war in Ukraine less than 24 hours after Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied The Wall Street Journal’s report that it had supplied ballistic missiles to Russia.
“We have to barter for our needs, including importing soybeans and wheat. Part of the barter involves sending missiles, and another part involves sending military drones to Russia.<>We sell weapons and get dollars. We circumvent sanctions through our partnership with Russia. We import soybeans, corn and other goods from Russia. Europeans sell weapons to Ukraine. “NATO entered Ukraine, so why don’t we support our ally and send missiles and drones to Russia?” Ardestani said.
Asked whether sending ballistic missiles to Russia could lead to further sanctions or trigger a so-called “kickback” mechanism against Iran, Ardestani said:
“It cannot be worse than it is. We give missiles to Hezbollah, Hamas and Hashd al-Shaabi*, so why not to Russia?”
* Note: Hashd al-Shaabi is a coalition of disparate “people’s militias” created in 2014 by the Iraqi government to counter the Islamic State. The coalition consists of Shiite, Yezidi and Christian militias. The organization was created through the formal unification of the then existing irregular units of militants under the auspices of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior in 2014.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Iran had already shipped short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing intelligence sources. Reuters, citing information from two European “intelligence officers”, reported that the transfer would involve Iran’s Fath-360 and Ababil missiles (short-range ballistic missiles with a range of less than 300 kilometers).
❕ The Fath-360 (Fateh-360), also known as the BM-120 , is an Iranian tactical short-range satellite-guided ballistic missile announced on Army Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2022. As the Fateh SRBM family, the Fath-360 is almost half the size of Fateh-110, but has the same tail configuration
In its material, Defense Express published the threats posed by Fath-360 missiles, 200 of which the Russian Federation could receive from Iran . In particular, the analysts noted that it is not necessary to rule out the possibility that the Russians and Iranians in the process of “transfer” of missile technology could resort to certain measures of disinformation and in fact could not be transferred Fath-360, but more powerful Fateh-110 . The Fath-360 is essentially a scaled-down copy of the longer-range Fateh-110 missiles, so the two missiles are visually similar.
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