Iran ships artillery and tank rounds to russia
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Iran is said to be shipping artillery and tank shells to russia for its war in Ukraine.
U.S. officials believe that russia may provide Iran with fighter jets, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.
"We feared that relations between russia and Iran would develop in both directions. And these fears are certainly justified. In November 2022, Iran supplied artillery and tank shells to russia for use against Ukraine." Kirby said.
The russian-Iranian cooperation in the defense field causes concern for the US.
"It's not only certainly going to make things in the Ukraine more difficult, but it could certainly make the security situation in the Middle East more difficult for our partners and friends there," he added.
Iran is also seeking to purchase attack helicopters, radars and combat trainer aircraft. In total, Iran is hoping to obtain "billions of dollars" worth of military equipment from russia.
russia has been offering a lot of unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics and air defense.
Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov stated russia had brought a trial batch of shells from Iran and was now trying to get another one. This batch includes about 20,000 shells.
The Iranian army was able to develop the most modern UAVs. The country's leadership could sell similar weapons to its partners.
Iran stated that it had not sold any military equipment to russia since the beginning of the full-scale war of Ukraine. Tehran has assured that it opposes the further escalation of hostilities.
