In the latest partnership between Iran and Russia, Roscosmos Corporation, a Russian state-owned company, “launched an Iranian photographic satellite from its Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz rocket” reports The Foreign Desk. The surveillance equipment is expected to send high-resolution pictures from 500 km above the earth’s surface, and state media in Iran says it will generate images for agricultural, environmental, and scientific purposes.
This is not the first time Iran has found friends in ‘high places’. In 2022, Russia assisted Iran with the launching of a remote-sensing Khayyam satellite from a facility in Kazakhstan. Iran’s Telecommunications Minister, Issa Zarepour, portrayed the project as “fully domestically developed.”Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Iran and Russia have worked together to mitigate the numerous international sanctions that have been levied against their governments.
“Tehran has sent ballistic missiles, attack-drones, and battlefield munitions to assist Moscow’s military operations against Ukrainian forces. Russia has reciprocated with the transfer of military aircraft and advanced technical support” reports The Foreign Desk.
Shortly after the Biden administration and members of the United Nations allowed preventive sanctions to expire earlier this year, Iran sent hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia, reportedly in return for fighter jets and helicopters from Moscow.
“The U.S. and European partners declined to prevent the expiration of U.N. sanctions in late 2023 that curbed Iran’s ability to transfer missiles” reports The Foreign Desk.
