In a speech at Tehran’s Rajaei University on November 13, Mehdi Farahi, the deputy defense minister of the Iranian regime, claimed that Iran had “almost $1 billion” in military exports in the past year.
Without referring to the details of the military export items, Farahi stated that the Ministry of Defense uses “knowledge-based companies, industrial towns, universities, and science and technology parks,” and that “7,000 companies” and over “100,000 individuals” collaborate with this ministry.
This Defense Ministry official announced the “billion-dollar” military exports of Iran in the past year while the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran’s missile program, based on the nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, ended in October.
However, the United States government declared that it would intensify efforts to counter this program and the production of drones in Iran by imposing new sanctions.
Previously, in a statement on October 6, Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief foreign policy official, announced that the United Kingdom, France, and Germany had no intention of lifting the sanctions against Iran, which were set to expire on October 18.
Based on numerous evidence and reports of Russian attacks on military and non-military infrastructure in Ukraine using Iranian-made drones, most of Tehran’s military exports in the past year and a half have been to Moscow.
The Ukrainian government reported in October that over 600 attacks had been carried out on cities in the country by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the preceding three months.
On August 4, the United States’ Defense Department showcased an exhibition on Iranian drones used in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department stated that the United States had “definitely” provided evidence in this regard.
The purpose of presenting this evidence to foreign officials, members of Congress, and journalists is to prove that Iran’s public denial of providing drone assistance to Russia in the Ukrainian war is baseless.
For months, the Iranian regime denied sending drones to Russia for the purpose of targeting civilians and non-military infrastructure in Ukraine. However, eventually, with the presentation of credible evidence by Western institutions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian confirmed this matter in November 2022. He claimed, however, that the drones had been delivered to Russia before the Ukrainian war and in limited numbers.
Russia has utilized drones in many of its attacks on Ukraine, and the recovered remnants of these downed UAVs indicated that Russia was employing Iranian-made suicide drones in the conflict.
