Russia may help Iran’s secret nuclear weapons programme in exchange for help with Putin’s failing war in Ukraine, intelligence experts have warned.
Moscow recently secured a deal with Tehran to manufacture deadly Shahed-136 drones in Russia and also to buy short-range ballistic missiles.
Hundreds of the explosives-tipped unmanned weapons have been fired at Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure in the past month.
But crippling western sanctions - stepped up today - mean both countries are short of currency - piling pressure on Moscow to produce an incentive for the shady arms deals.
Former FBI terrorism expert Ali Soufan wrote in a report seen by the Mirror: “The financial terms of the production deal have not been reported and likely constitute a mix of cash, in-kind payments and other promises of assistance from Moscow.
“Both countries are subject to sweeping US and European sanctions and the extent to which Russia is able to provide Iran with hard currency payments for the drone production agreement is unclear.
“As an alternative Iranian leaders may seek additional Russian assistance to boost their nuclear programme.
“Maintaining Russia as a partner may also help in circumventing sanctions that hinder Iran’s ability to acquire components and other goods for its advanced weapons programmes.”
Under a 2015 nuclear weapons agreement Iran’s ability to manufacture nukes was massively reduced for 15 years, in exchange for releasing western sanctions against Tehran.
Key elements needed to produce weapons would be so depleted that Iran would not be able to produce the missiles.
Crucially it meant if Iran breached the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement the so-called “break out” time where Iran could restart its nuke programme would also be extended.
In exchange for agreeing to the JCPOA with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany this would give the international community to react.
Israel is under constant threat from Tehran aggression via its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon and even Hamas in Gaza - whilst also being an ally of the group of five countries who signed the deal with Iran.
But in 2018 then US President Donald Trump backed out of the deal, branding it “defective at its core.”
Recently Iran has been trying to restart the agreement, even though the west suspects Iran is breaking it, in a bid to release sanctions.
And Russia has since 2015 become a pariah because of its brutal war against Ukraine.
Israel’s spies have been engaged in a long-term assassination campaign against Iranian nuclear scientists, scoring many direct hits.
And the chief of its Mossad spy agency David Barnea has stated the deal, which is again under discussion, will not halt its operations against Tehran, branding the deal “a charade.”
Mossad believes releasing sanctions on Iran will lead to a flood of revenue into Tehran, boosting its ability secretly to relaunch the nuke programme.
