Russian military experts visited Iran on two occasions in 2024 as Tehran looked to expand its cooperation with Moscow while its network of resistance suffered devastating blows amid war with Israel.
“Russian missile specialists don’t just appear out of the blue,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
“Alarm bells should be going off in Washington and Jerusalem,” Taleblu added.
Senior missile and air defense experts traveled to Tehran in April and September 2024, Reuters reported, as Iran was embroiled in regional confrontation with Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
FDD’s Taleblu said the visit is proof that any effort to divorce Russia from Iran will be self-defeating for the United States. It is unclear exactly what kind of cooperation was discussed during these visits. Nicholas Carl of the American Enterprise Institute notes that it comes at a time when Iran is looking to Russia for further air defense support and Russia is buying Iranian drones and missiles to use against Ukraine. Experts, including Carl, agree that Russia and Iran are increasingly collaborating to keep one another strong and in pursuit of their mutual objective of eroding U.S. global influence.