Iran Strikes Covert Missile Deal With Moscow In Backchannel Rearmament

Iran is squarely in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, and both Russia and China are to some degree coming to Tehran’s aid with some significant arms deals meant to potentially stave off future attack.

Most significantly, the Financial Times is reporting that Russia will supply the Iranians with thousands of advanced shoulder-fired missiles in a deal worth 500 million Euros.

It’s said to be part of a broader effort to rebuild Iran’s air defenses, which were heavily destroyed and retarded by Israeli-US airstrikes in the last June war. Iran is also greatly limited given years of US-led sanctions targeting its defense and industrial sectors.

Though only coming to light this past weekend, the agreement was inked in Moscow in December, and commits Russia to deliver 500 “Verba” launch units and 2,500 “9M336” missiles over three years.

FT says it reviewed leaked Russian documents the UK publication obtained, which revealed the secretive deal for the Russian anti-air defenses.

The agreement was reportedly negotiated between Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Moscow representative of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), with for example the the 9M336 missiles going for €170,000 per unit.

As for the Verba systems, for Moscow they represent a relatively low-cost way to shore up Iran’s air defenses, bolstering Tehran’s deterrent posture without meaningfully draining Russia’s own missile inventories, badly needed for operations in Ukraine and as readiness for some potential future engagement with NATO.

Last week, Russian naval power was on rare display near Iran, cooperating in planned joint naval drills with the Iranian Navy and IRGC units, in a bit of muscle-flexing as the Pentagon builds up its forces in the Mideast region.

If the US were to launch a surprise attack on Iran, it remains unlikely that either Russia or China would come to Tehran’s direct military aid and engage militarily with Washington. However, Moscow and Beijing would no doubt team up to issue a UN Security Council condemnation, and would seek to rally the globe against another Iraq-style war in the Middle East which would likely sow broader instability.