Iran Doubles Down on Arms for Russia

Iran is doubling down on military support for Russia in a series of new military deals that could prolong the war in Ukraine and offer sanction-battered Tehran new economic and defense lifelines, according to five U.S. and NATO officials familiar with the matter.

In public, top U.S. and allied leaders have castigated Iran for supplying Russia with drones and vowed to use everything in their power to block those shipments. But behind closed doors, officials concede that there are no realistic avenues to stem the flow of Iranian military goods into Russia for it to deploy to Ukraine.

“There’s unfortunately a limit to what we can do to stop this unholy alliance with sanctions alone,” said one senior Eastern European official who tracks the matter.

The question of what Washington and its allies can—or can’t—do to hamper cooperation between Moscow and Tehran serves as a litmus test for how it can cut off Russia from foreign military suppliers to help hasten the end of the war. With many of Russia’s military supplies running low and its defense industrial base squeezed by Western sanctions, Moscow is increasingly seeking outside help and arms transfers—from neighboring Belarus, from Iran and North Korea, and (possibly) from China—to stay in the fight in Ukraine.

The question over Iran’s support for Russia’s military has taken on a new sense of urgency for Western policymakers after Russian forces launched another salvo of Iranian-made drones in Ukraine this week. Although 11 of the 14 Iranian-made drones, most aimed at the capital city of Kyiv, were shot down, the latest strike signals that Russia will continue to find ways to prolong the war by targeting Ukrainian civilians well outside the military battlefields.

Moscow and Tehran have already advanced plans to build a drone factory inside Russia that could produce thousands of drones per year, the U.S. and NATO officials confirmed, detailing a plan first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the officials said, Russia is drumming up plans to provide Iran with advanced military fighter jets, helicopters, and air defense systems.

Iran and Russia have a long history of cooperating against Western powers, but experts have described it as a partnership borne of convenience in specific cases—and one laden with mutual distrust. But the new developments in Ukraine have pushed Russia to change that by deepening its ties with Tehran beyond previous levels, senior U.S. and other Western officials said.

Russia and Iran’s military alliance is “moving at a pretty fast clip in a very dangerous direction right now,” CIA Director William Burns told CBS News in a recent interview. “Russia is proposing to help the Iranians on their missile program and also at least considering the possibility of providing fighter aircraft to Iran as well.”