Iran Press/ Europe: Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Tehran next week, which coincides with a statement by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claiming that Iran will supply a large batch of drones to Russia. The US official did not provide any evidence, but the timing of his statement was significant.
It came just before US President Joe Biden's trip to the Middle East, where he is expected to highlight preventing Tehran's regional expansion, according to Kommersant. The news that Russia may be procuring Iranian drones may be negatively perceived in the Middle East and used by Washington to undermine Moscow in the eyes of its Arab partners.
Moscow and Tehran have been actively discussing the prospects for military-technical cooperation for a long time, but so far, it has been about Iran's purchase of Russian weapons, as officials in both capitals have repeatedly stated.
The "Astana trio" meeting in Tehran will take place a few days after Biden's Mideast tour. So it’s no coincidence that on the eve of the US presidential visit, Sullivan came out with these statements about Iranian drone supplies to Russia, according to the newspaper. "So far, Washington has failed to pit Arab countries against Moscow, but now the Americans have a new weighty argument," Kommersant writes.
"I can’t say how accurate the American data is, but in any case, the course of the hostilities in Ukraine proves once again that many, different unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are needed. It would be a good idea to acquire several hundred different Iranian UAVs in a short period of time," military expert Yuri Lyamin told Kommersant.
He recalled that Iran has one of the world's largest range of UAVs. "Iran, which has been under sanctions for many years, has made the production of UAVs one of its main priorities, compensating for the lack of modern combat aircraft and helicopters," the expert noted.
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