The Paris-based dissident organization National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) accused the Iranian regime of providing Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s army with more than 3,500 drones for his war against Ukraine.
According to reports from the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) social network inside the Islamic Republic, “Iran’s UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] The purchase agreement with Russia includes various attack drones, including the Shahed-129, Mohajer-6 and the suicide drones Shahed-136 and Shahed-131.” The MEK is part of the umbrella organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The NCRI dossier states: “Tehran has sold more than 3,500 UAVs to Russia. Most of these were manufactured in the Defense Ministry factories, others by the Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA) factories.”
The claim that the theocratic government has supplied Russia with more than 3,500 drones indicates a dramatic increase in the Iranian regime’s support for Putin’s war machine.
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A drone is launched on August 25, 2022 during a military exercise at an undisclosed location in Iran. (West Asia News Agency/Handout via Portal/File)
Ukraine recently announced that Russia had already deployed about 400 drones out of a total of about 2,000 weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the downing of 223 drones produced by the Iranian regime.
Last week Zelenskyy stood next to an Iranian Shahed drone that was allegedly shot down in the capital Kyiv.
The Iranian attack drones are a matter of great concern to Western countries, including the US, which are trying to support Ukraine in its efforts to save civilian lives and drive Russian forces from its territory.
According to the NCRI report, “Some of the UAVs sent to Russia come from the IRGC’s Qadr Airbase [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”
The Trump administration sanctioned the IRGC as a foreign terrorist entity.
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The report states: “When Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC Quds Force, was killed by the US on January 6, 2020, his body was transferred to the Qadr base. The Qadr base has its own hangars and special services. Mehrabad airport administration does not interfere in their affairs. The Quds Force uses the Qadr base and IRGC-affiliated aircraft companies to send weapons to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.”
The EU and US governments identified Soleimani as a terrorist responsible for the deaths of more than 600 American military personnel in the Middle East.
When asked about the NCRI report and whether the US plans to end its nuclear deal negotiations with the Iranian regime in Vienna as punishment for Tehran for selling drones to Russia, a US State Department spokesman told Fox News Digital : “We have been warning since July that Iran plans to sell unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia to use against Ukraine.
The spokesman continued: “We can confirm that Russian military personnel stationed in Crimea piloted Iranian UAVs and used them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine, including in strikes against Kyiv in recent days. We understand that Iranian military personnel were in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (center) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) greet each other as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi looks on during their meeting in Tehran, Iran July 19, 2022. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via AP)
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The spokesman added: “Russia has received dozens of UAVs so far and is likely to receive more deliveries in the future. Additionally, given Russia’s ongoing supply shortages, we are concerned that Russia may also seek to acquire advanced conventional weapons from Iran, such as surface-to-surface missiles, which will almost certainly be used in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine will continue to use all tools at our disposal to delay, deter, impede and impose costs on those involved in such activities.”
The NCRI dossier obtained by Fox News Digital could carry weight in foreign capitals and in Washington. In 2002, the NCRI revealed for the first time that the Iranian regime had built nuclear facilities near Natanz and Arak.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards members march during a parade in Tehran, Iran. (Portal)
Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for Iran’s National Council of Resistance in Paris, told Fox News Digital: “It is more urgent that the European Union and the US abandon their wait-and-see attitude towards the regime. The clerical regime’s vicious interventions in hotspots in the Middle East and Europe are well established.”
He continued: “It is time to hold them accountable for their egregious human rights abuses at home, which now include the killing of teenage protesters. Continued engagement only emboldens the regime to spill blood in Iran and further destabilize the region and the world. The clerical regime requires continued violation of UN resolutions [it] to use the snapback mechanism to re-enforce the six UN Security Council resolutions.”
The snapback sanctions provision relates to punishment for Iran’s violations of UN resolutions related to its alleged nuclear weapons program.
Critics of the Biden administration’s Iran policy, such as the NCRI, reject the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal – because, they argue, it funds terrorism and does not discourage Tehran is going to develop an atomic bomb.
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According to a think tank study published by FDD, the nuclear deal will pump up to $275 billion into Iran’s coffers in the first year of the deal and only temporarily limit Tehran’s ability to build a nuclear weapons device.
Gobadi said: “Lust for war and support for terror has been a pillar of the clerical regime’s rule to cover up and complement its domestic oppression, something the regime desperately needed, especially with the revolution taking place in Iran. “
“This dangerous development is also the by-product of the culture of impunity enjoyed by the regime, despite its egregious domestic human rights abuses and its brazen and destabilizing actions across the Iranian border,” he continued.
When asked about the NCRI’s report on drone sales to Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its diplomatic mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, right, attends a news conference with Josep Borrell, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, center, at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in the Iranian capital Tehran, June 25, 2022 (Atta Kenare /AFP via Getty Images)
Last week, the Iranian regime categorically denied having concluded any arms deals with Moscow. Russia denies using Iranian-made drones.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the allegations were “unfounded” and called on Ukraine to “present all evidence supporting the allegations”. Amir-Abdollahian added: “When … we realize that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will definitely not remain indifferent to this question.”
Tehran is no stranger to providing arms and combatants to dictatorships in the Middle East and its authoritarian allies around the world. Fox News Digital reported in 2018 that Iran was manufacturing 107mm chemical missiles that were used in Syrian regime attacks on civilians.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe for Fox News Digital. Benjamin has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, Forbes, and The New York Post. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.