Russia is providing Iran with information to target US forces in the Middle East, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing three officials familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Russia has been giving Iran the locations of US military assets since the outbreak of the war, including warships and aircraft.
This signals that the expanding conflict now includes one of the US's biggest nuclear competitors with "exquisite intelligence capabilities," The Post noted, adding that it also marks a shift from what experts previously thought, namely that Russia would stay away from the conflict and limit its response to diplomatic condemnations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged earlier this week for hostilities to stop and for a return to political and diplomatic efforts, claiming he was ready to support peaceful, compromise solutions based on international law.
'Putin has other priorities'
On Thursday, Anna Borshchevskaya, a Russia expert at the Washington Institute, said that, beyond Iran, “Putin has other priorities, and chief among them is Ukraine,” Reuters reported
“It would be foolish for Russia to go into a direct military confrontation with the United States," she added.
The report also cited a senior Russian source who said that “the escalation in and around Iran and the Gulf is already diverting attention from the war in Ukraine. That’s just a fact. Everything else is just emotion about a ‘fallen ally.'"
Military, nuclear aid already supplied
Moscow had helped Iran build military capacity by supplying missiles, air defense systems, and technology, Reuters added, in efforts intended to bolster deterrence and complicate US operations in the region.
In April of last year, Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad announced that Russia would fund a new nuclear plant in Iran.
The two countries would jointly undertake "the construction of new nuclear energy facilities and the completion of phases two and three of the Bushehr power plant," he said.
Later, in September, Russia provided Tehran with a series of military upgrades, including Russian MiG-29 fighter jets and S-400 air defense systems.
However, the extent of Russia’s recent intelligence input was not entirely clear, according to The Post's report. The Iranian military’s own ability to locate US forces has been degraded less than a week into the fighting, said the officials.
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