Russia To Use Spy Satellite For Ukraine War Before Passing Helm To Iran
Russia intends to use the satellite that it will launch on Iran's behalf to assist its own war effort in Ukraine before relinquishing its control to Tehran.
Russia intends to use the satellite that it will launch on Iran's behalf to assist its own war effort in Ukraine before relinquishing its control to Tehran.
Two Western security officials told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity on Thursday that the satellite, dubbed “Khayyam” after a 12th-century Persian polymath, will greatly enhance Tehran’s ability to spy on military targets across the Middle East, including near-continuous monitoring of sensitive facilities in Israel and across the Persian Gulf.
Russia's Roscosmos space agency has announced August 9 as the launch date of the satellite by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan to fulfill a deal negotiated with Iran over nearly four years. Russia agreed to build and launch the Kanopus-V system but Iran may not be able to take control of the satellite right away as Moscow has told Tehran that it plans to use the satellite for several months, or longer, to enhance its surveillance of military targets for its invasion of Ukraine.
The pending launch is the latest indicator of increased military and political cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned twice in July that Moscow appears to be looking at buying Iranian drones and Russian officers even visited a drone base in Iran’s Kashan to review their options.
The developments come as talks have resumed in the Austrian capital Vienna in what some officials describe as a last-ditch effort to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. The Biden administration is pressing Iran to return to compliance with the deal, which Tehran essentially abandoned after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018.
A statement by the ministry said that the arrests took place over the past three days in two locations in western and southern Iran, adding that the 10 were captured in possession of explosives, communication devices and weapons.
The militants injured two Iranian intelligence agents in an exchange of fire before being detained, the statement added, without specifying where or when the clash took place.
The ministry claimed that it had them under surveillance before they entered the country from Iraq and Turkey to bomb the gatherings for the Islamic month of Muharram, which started on July 30.
It also alleged that the militants were hired by Israel to make up for a failed attack at a facility in the central Iranian province of Esfahan last month by a Mossad-linked sabotage team who were purportedly members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group Komala.
Recently the Intelligence Ministry claiming has been making similar claims of uncovering alleged spy networks and thwarting operations following a major reshuffling of it rival, the IRGC intelligence and counter-intelligence leadership, widely attributed to reported Israeli infiltration and the inability of Iran’s security bodies to deal with the situation. Since May, several Revolutionary Guard personnel were killed or died in Iran, which Iran blamed on Israel.
