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The White House said that its intelligence indicates that Iran will provide Russia with hundreds of drones to help its forces confront resistance from the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said – in a press conference at the White House on Monday – that “our intelligence indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia – within a very short time – with up to hundreds of drones, including combat aircraft.”
He added that the same information “also indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these drones, and that the first training courses were supposed to start in early July,” noting that he did not know if Tehran had already supplied Moscow with these drones or Part of it, or this has not yet been done.
Sullivan reminded that the Houthis in Yemen had previously used Iranian booby-trapped drones to attack Saudi Arabia, he said.
Since the Russian army began the war on Ukraine on February 24, the drones have played an important role in carrying out reconnaissance operations, launching missiles or dropping bombs.
Expensive
Sullivan stressed that the Ukraine war is costing Russia a “heavy cost,” noting that Russian forces are facing problems in maintaining their armament as they advance in eastern Ukraine.
Last week, the United States announced new military aid to Ukraine worth $400 million, including HIMARS rocket launchers and precision-guided missiles.
Since the beginning of the war, Washington has provided Kiev with military aid totaling $6.9 billion.
According to Sullivan’s statements, “Russia has largely failed to achieve its goals in Ukraine”, which were “the seizure of the capital Kyiv, the elimination of Ukraine from existence as a country, the elimination of Ukrainian identity, and the integration of Ukraine into Russia.”
“The primary goal of our strategy is to put the Ukrainians in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that they will be in a position of strength at the negotiating table when the time for diplomacy comes,” the US official said.
Iran’s development of unmanned aircraft raises the concern of both the United States and Israel, which accuse Tehran of providing its allies in the Middle East with these aircraft, or using them to target American forces and navigation in the Gulf.
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