Iran could provide Russia with additional weapons to use in the war in Ukraine, including surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, according to the Biden administration.
National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that the administration remains “concerned” about the possibility that Iran could provide Russia with such missiles, though he added, “We haven’t seen that bear out, but it’s a concern that we have.”
WHITE HOUSE: IRAN AND RUSSIA HAVE GROWN CLOSER SINCE INVADING UKRAINE
He reiterated during a press gaggle on Wednesday that the United States had seen “no indications that there’s been a transfer of surface-to-surface missiles from Iran to Russia.”
If this delivery occurs, it’d be the first advanced, precision-guided missiles that Iran has provided to Russia since the war began last February, though it has provided hundreds of drones in recent months.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces has now shot down more than 300 Iranian-made drones fired by Russian troops since Sept. 13, a Ukrainian military official said last week.
The Iranians have provided hundreds of Shahed-136 drones to Moscow this fall, though they have repeatedly denied this. The administration announced last month that “a relatively small number” of personnel connected with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had traveled to Crimea to help train the Russians on the drones due to initial shortcomings. Kirby couldn’t say on Tuesday if the IRGC forces were still in Crimea when asked.
The Biden administration officials warned recently that the sides have grown closer since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Kirby also revealed on Wednesday that North Korea has sought to provide Russia with artillery shells and is attempting to obscure those shipments by going through the Middle East and northern Africa.
“When you see [Russian President Vladimir Putin] reaching out to countries like North Korea and Iran because he’s running short of his own weapon systems, that gives cause for concern,” Kirby explained. “It doesn’t — it increasingly is unsettling in terms of the degree to which he feels he has to continue to stretch to prosecute before. And so all of that combined gives us cause for increasing concerns over the last eight months.
