Iran’s decision to send armed drones to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine jeopardizes years of engagement with the West and marks a risky gambit by Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei
to disrupt an international system that he sees as stacked against Tehran, analysts said.
If Russia uses more Iranian weapons in Ukraine, stalled talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear accord that offered to lift sanctions on Tehran would face even dimmer prospects, Western officials say.
Mr. Khamenei sees intervention in Ukraine at a time when Moscow’s invasion is faltering as a way to strike back at American power somewhere other than on Iran’s own home turf, analysts say. Though Iran is historically wary of Russia, Mr. Khamenei has pressed for years to deepen ties with Moscow and Russian President
whose intervention in the Syrian civil war is credited with saving President
Bashar Al Assad
and bolstering Iran’s own position in the country.
“Khamenei has been cultivated by Moscow for years, and when they knock on the door saying we need your help, it’s very hard for him to say no,” said Alex Vatanka, head of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.
The Iranian government has denied that it has provided Russia with arms for use in Ukraine and insists it isn’t involved in the conflict. Russia has also denied that its forces have used Iranian-provided drones in the country.
Iranian troops trained this week, in an image provided by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a key to Iran’s projection of power in the Middle East.
Photo:
Associated Press
“We have defense cooperation with Russia but sending weapons and drones for use against Ukraine is not our policy,” Foreign Minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
said Thursday in a phone call with European Union foreign-policy chief
Josep Borrell.
The EU sanctions on…
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