Pars Today

Pars Today - According to an American think-tank, the Iranian drones have gone far beyond Ukraine and Israel and are seen at least in two more continents.

The American Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported on the global welcome for Iranian arms, saying, "While the Biden administration is trying hard to prevent or limit the missile and drone attacks of Iran and its proxy forces against Israel, it is rational to remember that the Middle East is full of the Iranian arms and launchers." According to Pars Today, quoting from IRNA, the FDD has pointed to the presence of some Iranian arms in Lebanon, saying that, the first historical long-range attack of an unmanned aircraft which was launched by Yemen's Ansarullah group against Tel Aviv and left one dead, was carried out with a drone made in Iran as it was able to fly a distance of 2,600 kilometers."

According to this think-tank's analysis, these are not the only worrying issues of the present time, rather, the Islamic Republic is exploiting a favorable international climate to turn into an important supplier of defense and military arms.

As per the FDD announcement, one of the privileges securing Iran's interests is the proper usage of Tehran's cheap system, such as drones, in the battlefield. An obvious example is Shahed-136 drone which has played an important role in the Russian special operation against Ukraine. That's why, Moscow launched 4,600 of these drones during the first two years of its operation. This was the very drone reaching Tel Aviv a short while ago.

The FDD report makes it clear, "Iranian drones have gone far beyond Ukraine and Israel and are seen at least in two other continents. This shows the domain of using Iranian arms in the international power-seeking. Tehran helps Caracas in producing indigenous drones and the armed forces of this Latin American country use Mohajer-2 drone of Iran with the names of ANSU-100 and ANSU-200 which are very similar to the Iranian Shahed-171. The Ethiopian army, too, uses Mohajer-6. This Iranian drone has also helped the Sudanese armed forces to prevent the advancement of the aggressive forces and retake some of the territories during the civil war. Therefore, it is no surprise that Iran and Armenia have inked an arms contract worth $500 million for export of unmanned aircraft to the Caucasian country.

The American anti-Iran think-tank, referring to a report of an internal news agency, wrote, "Tehran is intent to substitute Turkey in the global drone market till 2028; hence it is trying to have at least 1/4 of the share of the market equal to nearly $6.5 billion."

The experts of the think-tank have made it clear elsewhere in the report, "The strong presence in defense exhibitions has been another course to introduce Iran's ability to the world. The Islamic Republic of Iran showcased its military systems in 2024 in Malaysia, Qatar and Iraq and sent a group to Saudi Arabia to take part in the exhibition of the country. Moscow and Belgrade were other destinations in which the Iranian arms-manufacturers participated in related exhibitions."

This report of FDD, mentioning that Iran has no international limit in terms of the global arms trade except the American and European sanctions, continued that the arms and missile sanctions against Iran were expired in October 2022 and October 2023 respectively according to the UNSC resolution and the 2015 nuclear deal.

The so-called "Foundation for Defense of Democracies" has claimed in this report, "Revival of deterrence and punishment of Iran is necessary due to its increasing expansion of arms in the world, but since one of the permanent members of the UNSC is benefiting from the Iranian drones, and may also receive Iranian ballistic missiles soon, it is unlikely to pass a new resolution against the Iranian arms exports in the UNSC."

The writers of this report, pointing to the necessity of Washington's strict and unilateral measure against Tehran, recommended, "The United States and its allies, through the acts of sabotage against Iran's drones or other arms facilities and stockpiles, should disturb the supply section of Iran."

RM/MG

Key phrases: Iran and US, Iranian military power, Iranian drones, arms exports of Iran