Over the past six months, Iran has sent more than 300,000 artillery shells and millions of rounds of ammunition to russia by ship across the Caspian Sea.
Source. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing Middle East intelligence and documents reviewed by the newspaper.
This information was passed on to the United States, which is looking for opportunities to prevent Iranian arms supplies.
One of the contracts from September 2022 indicates that Rosoboronexport purchased more than 74,000 shells for $1.7 million.
According to Middle Eastern sources, the last known shipment was a voyage in early March by the Rasul Gamzatov vessel, which transported 2,000 shells.
According to shipping data, the ship left the Iranian port of Amirabad on March 8 and docked in Astrakhan six days later. At the end of March, it returned to Iran and a day later set sail for russia again, the WSJ reports.
"For the first time, russia now depends on Iran for a wide range of bilateral relations. This is a historic change," commented Anna Borschevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Previously, it was known that Iran was transporting weapons to russia by cargo planes, and the United States tried to counter this.
In April, Brad Cooper, Vice Admiral of the US Navy's 5th Fleet, which is actively opposing illegal Iranian arms shipments in the Persian Gulf, visited Turkmenistan, which borders Iran and is also located on the Caspian coast, unannounced.
Navy spokesman Tim Hawkins declined to tell the WSJ whether the Turkmenistan visit discussed Iranian arms shipments to russia, saying that the discussion was about expanding cooperation and maritime security.
Background. Meanwhile, it was reported that the HIMARS manufacturer cannot increase the supply of missiles to Ukraine due to a shortage of engines.