(Jerusalem) Iran is seeking to “deepen and expand” its advanced arms deliveries to Russia, which is currently at war in Ukraine, the head of the Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, argued Thursday evening.
At the end of October, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he shared information with the United States showing, according to Israeli intelligence, the use of Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine.
In a speech Thursday evening at the Israeli presidency on the occasion of a ceremony linked to Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of Lights, the head of Mossad, David Barnea, quoted by the local press, affirmed that Iran had the intention to deliver more advanced equipment to Russia, without detailing this armament.
“We warn of Iran’s future intentions, which it is trying to keep secret, which is to deepen and expand its shipments of advanced weapons to Russia,” Barnea said.
“We had already shone the spotlight on arms deliveries to Russia, despite Iran’s lies […] who are familiar to us,” Mr. Barnea added, asserting that his services, accused by Tehran of having sabotaged some of its nuclear sites and of having assassinated scientists, had “thorough” knowledge of Iran.
The two countries have been waging a shadow war for years. Israel accuses Iran, which denies, of wanting to acquire the atomic bomb and says it is seeking by all means to prevent it from doing so. Israel also wants to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
On Monday, Colonel Davoud Jafari, a member of the Aerospace Force of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was killed in Syria, near Damascus, by a bomb attributed to Israel by Tehran. The Guardians’ aerospace department specializes in manufacturing drones, missiles, ballistic missiles, and satellites.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Israel initially took a cautious stance toward Moscow. Israel had argued special ties between the two countries, with the Jewish state having more than a million citizens from the former Soviet Union and Russia having troops in Syria, a country neighboring Israel.
Yaïr Lapid, now outgoing Prime Minister, then condemned “a serious violation of the international order”. But on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with the future head of the Israeli government Benyamin Netanyahu on the issue of Ukraine in particular, the Israeli authorities said.