Russia is set to supply Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East, and increase the country’s intelligence-gathering ability, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The satellite would allow "continuous monitoring of facilities ranging from Persian Gulf oil refineries and Israeli military bases to Iraqi barracks that house U.S. troops," said the paper, which cited three anonymous sources - a current and a former US official and a senior Middle Eastern government official briefed on the sale.
The plan would deliver a Russian-made Kanopus-V satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera which could be launched from Russia within months, the Post said.
The report was published as Iran and the United States are engaged in indirect talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal.
Leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have made several trips to Russia since 2018 to help negotiate the agreement, the paper said.
Russian experts traveled to Iran this spring to help train crews who would operate the satellite from a newly built facility near Karaj west of Tehran, it added.
