The West fears that the Islamic Republic could benefit from this technology and apply it to its military arsenal

Russia may have delivered British arms to Iran in exchange for drones

photo_camera REUTERS/ROMAN PETUSHKOV - Iranian-made Shahed-136 suicide drone

Russia has reportedly given the Islamic Republic of Iran UK anti-tank missiles seized from the Ukrainian army in exchange for drones used in the military campaign in Ukraine, according to The Telegraph.

Moscow is said to have seized British and US state-of-the-art weapons from the Ukrainian army and handed them over to Tehran, as well as $139 million in cash, as Sky News also reported. According to Sky News, the weapons and money were flown to the Iranian capital in a Russian military aircraft.

Sky News reported on Tuesday night that the weapons and cash were flown to Tehran on a Russian military plane in the early hours of 20 August. The Russian military cargo plane was carrying a British NLAW anti-tank missile, a US Javelin anti-tank missile and a US Stinger anti-aircraft missile. The weapons were intended for the Ukrainian army but "fell into the wrong hands" in the Ukrainian war, Sky News said.

There are fears that Iran could replicate the characteristics of these weapons and eventually manufacture them. Experts say Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite detachment of the Persian army, has the capability to examine the weapons, understand the technology and then manufacture them themselves. "They will probably be reverse-engineered and used in future wars," a source told Sky News.

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For their part, British military authorities are assessing the information received to determine the veracity of these facts. 

In exchange for the weapons and money, Iran is said to have given Russia 160 unmanned aerial vehicles, including 100 Shahed-136 drones that have been used in Ukraine to carry out heavy attacks on several cities. 

The Russian military has used Iranian drones, such as the aforementioned Shahed-136 suicide drones or the Mohajer-6 - similar to the Turkish Bayraktar - in places such as Odessa, Mykolaivo, Dnipro and the Ukrainian capital Kiev itself. There have even been reports of Iranian military trainers in Ukraine instructing Russian troops on how to use these drones. According to Kiev, Iranian military personnel have been in the occupied regions of Kherson and Crimea.

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Although Tehran has repeatedly denied that it has delivered drones to Russia, US security officials, quoted by The Washington Post, claimed that Iran is "secretly" planning to send not only drones but also missiles to the Russian military. Although the latter has also been denied by the Islamic Republic. 

Russia is thus attempting to halt the setbacks it is suffering in the war in Ukraine, where it has lost positions, including in the occupied city of Kherson, which are gradually being recovered by the Ukrainian armed forces, which receive Western support through the distribution of weapons and intelligence support. The Russian authorities are also seeking to reduce costs in the face of the difficult situation in Ukraine and the prolongation of the war, which has been going on since February, as Iranian drones are much less expensive than cruise missiles, making them a very economical alternative for attacking certain targets. 

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According to Sky News, a new deal worth around $200 million was agreed between Russia and Iran for another batch of drones, which could mean another large supply of UAVs to the Islamic Republic.

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