Today Western headline on the Ukraine War involves Russia using Iranian kamikaze drones to hit various Ukrainian cities, including Kiev. Western officials are outraged over Ukraine supplying Russia with Geran-2 drones supplied by Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen to fight Saudi Arabia. When it comes to Ukraine using all the sophisticated U.S. weapons, including the advance HIMARS medium-rated antiaircraft batteries no one asks any questions. But now that Iran has supplied Russian with its advanced suicide drones, the West seems outraged by Iran getting into the conflict. Anyone following the attempt to put the Iranian Nuke Deal back together knows that the use of Iranian kamikaze drones in Ukraine scuttled the revival of the Iranian Nuke Deal permanently. But let there be no mistake, the Ukraine War makes strange bedfellows, no drawing Iran into the conflict.
Iran of course denies supplying Russia with its later Kamikaze drones now capable of enhancing the Russian air war against Ukraine. James agency for open-source defense intelligences says the drones, or so-called “loitering munitions autonomous-swarm pusher-prop aerial drones” are the Iranian-made Shahed-136. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are labeled “kamikaze” after Japanese pilots who flew their vehicles into enemy ships in WW II. All the questions of the origin of unmanned predator drones relates to the fact that the U.S. and Kiev think they have a monopoly on supplying Ukraine advanced weapons systems to battle the Russian Federation. If you add up all the weapons made in America for Ukrainian use, if far eclipses anything Iran has done for the Russian Federation. Yet the prevailing mood in the press involves the audacity of Iran to supply Russian with war materiel.
Military experts think the drones carry, like rockets and missiles, an “explosive warhead” with which to hit various targets. “The AV [aerial vehicle] does not feature landing gear, suggesting the use of a trailer or platform for multiple launches,” said a James Defense analyst. “The whole point of using these Shaheds is to send them in waves, to stress Ukrainian air defenses., to have them expend ammunition, to keep people on edge,” James Defense analyst said. Iran developed its drone technology, reverse engineering U.S. predator drones, now giving the Persian nation a leg up on its Mideast rivals. Iran’s 83-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supplies kamikaze drones to 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin is another example of how a new military alignment has formed since the Feb. 24 Ukraine War. Iran and Chin are clearly aligned with the Russian Federation.
Iran’s denial of supplying Houthi-battle-tested Shahed-136 kamikaze drones following the same pattern of Tehran, under Mullah rule, admitting nothing, denying everything. “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions, and it’s circulated by Western sources,” said a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry. “We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war,” showing the same kind of denials seen over the last seven years of the Saudi war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Iran denied supplying Houthis with predator drones or any other weapons system over the last seven years. Iran denies the charges, fearing more punitive Western sanctions in Iran’s oil sector, something sorely missed from world’s energy markets. Iran wants no more sanctions, even though it’s obvious that Khamenei has worked feverishly on a new alliance with Russia, hoping to join the BRICS economic bloc, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
If the U.S. wants to keep Iranian kamikaze drones or any other weapon off the Ukraine battlefield, Biden and Zelensky need to decide whether it’s time to move the conflict from the battlefield to the peace table. Whether Iran or some other country supplies Russia with war materiel is of no consequences in the context of war. Ukraine receives almost 100% of its battlefield weapons from the U.S. Anything goes when it comes to war, something Kiev doesn’t understand. Zelensky squandered some 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory over the last eight months of war with the Russian Federation. No one told Zelensky to take on the Russian Federation, despite suffering undeniable losses over the last eight months. Zelensky gambled with Ukraine’s population and territory deciding to take on, with U.S. help, the Russian Federation. Eight months later Zelensky weighs his losses.
Iran has every reason to retaliate against the U.S. and EU for all the economic sanctions that have broken Iran’s economy. Any opportunity to retaliate against the West, Iran would take it in a heartbeat. State Department officials say that Iran violated sanctions under U.N. Security Resolution 2231, endorsing the de al between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S., limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment activities. “Anyone doing business with Iran, that can have any link to UAVs or ballistic missile development or the flow of arms from Iran to Russia, should be very careful and do their due diligence,” said State Department Spokeman Verdant Patel. Whatever sanctions the U.S. contemplates, it would only accelerate Iran’s involvement in the Ukraine War. “The U.S. will not hesitate to use sanctions,” Patel said, knowing the sanctions have virtually no effect on arms sales.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
