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Iran Has Joined the War Against Ukraine
For the first time since Darius the Great — whose Persian Empire stretched into parts of what is present day Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine — Iran has troops on the ground on the European continent.
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are providing Russia with on-the-ground, hands-on weapons support in occupied Crimea, and possibly Belarus.
For the last few months, Iran has been supplying Russia with Iranian-made Shahed-131 and 136 suicide drones — drones which have killed Ukrainians.
This prompted NATO shipments of signal jammers to Ukraine last week.
Since Russia has nearly depleted its stock of precision munitions, it is now turning to Iran to provide not only drones, but soon, ballistic missiles.
Ballistic missiles pose a much greater threat to Ukraine’s fledgling missile defense systems.
If Russia can get its hands on advanced munitions, courtesy of Iran, this war could drag on well into 2023 and beyond.
But this development prompts a far more troubling question:
What is Iran getting in return for its support of Russia?
The two countries have no deep, ideological bond.
In reality, their relationship has been one of ambivalence. Their goals are somewhat aligned in Syria, and so they have become partners of circumstance.
For Iran, they are experiencing a windfall by helping Russia in Ukraine.
First, thanks to Russia, Iran has opened a European front in its ongoing war against the West and the U.S. dominated global order.
Ukraine is the new proving ground for Iran to flex its technological muscle and test its “elite” soldiers’ training against a modern European army — one using U.S. equipment.
But more troubling, President Zelensky suggests that Russia may be preparing to return the favor by providing Iran with nuclear weapons development support.
That sentence should make your blood run cold…
Colder than a Moscow winter.
Russia has already built Iran’s sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr and has a contract to expand the plant with the…
