Tel Aviv: Iran is offering new designs of armed drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine war. Sources said that the money paid by Russia so far for the armed drones helps Iran to upgrade its drone production facilities.
To facilitate the transport, at present the Iranian armed drones are sent to Russia not assembled. This create a problem mainly because the high rate in which the armed drones are being used in Ukraine.
According to a report in Radio Free Europe, a polytechnic school in Russia’s Tatarstan, a region some 900 kilometres east of Moscow, is using manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and are increasingly turning to underage students as
According to the report in the website, the revelations about the assembly line in the Alabuga
The use of underage students as drone factory workers and the details of the manufacturing facilities were first reported by Russian independent media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July, according to the Radio Free Europe website.
Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war, but not since. However, US intelligence officials have warned for months of continued deliveries and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying the two sides were exploring how to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian drones inside Russia.
The Iranian drone industry is looking for new markets. According to Iran International website, operated from London by the opposition to the regime in Tehran, the Iranian president is involved in getting more clients for the armed drones with focus on African countries.
“The latest revelations will come as no shock, the barter deals of the heavily sanctioned regime the only way it can muddle through its current crisis, calling in favours from its dictatorial allies around the world from South America to Africa.”
According to Iran International, the United States and its European allies have imposed a series of sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies involved with the drone program and shipments of the weapon to Russia.
Iran first denied it had supplied the drones but in early November foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted the deliveries, while claiming they were sent before the Russian invasion.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
