Reuters reports a secret trip of 7 Russian missile experts to Tehran.
Reuters, citing travel records and employment data, claimed that several senior missile experts traveled from Moscow to Tehran over the past year.
According to Reuters, seven Russian weapons experts left Moscow for Tehran on two flights on April 24 and September 17, 2024.
The ticket reservation records included passport numbers, and six of the seven experts had the prefix “20” in them, which Reuters claims is used for official travel and is issued to government officials on foreign business trips as well as military personnel on the flight. Reuters claims that it has learned the reason for this number in the passports based on an order issued by the Russian government and a document on the country’s Foreign Ministry website.
The news agency wrote that it was unable to independently determine the purpose of these officials’ trips to Iran. Reuters also claimed, citing an Iranian Defense Ministry official, that Russian missile experts made several visits to Iranian missile sites last year, some of which took place in September.
Reuters also cited a Western defense official who monitors Iranian-Russian defense cooperation, who asked not to be named, as saying that an unspecified number of Russian missile experts visited an Iranian missile site in September at the port of Amirabad in northern Mazandaran province.
Reuters, which has previously made similar claims, said that all seven Russian experts had distinguished military backgrounds, with two holding the rank of colonel and two lieutenant colonel. Reuters wrote that their visits to Iran coincided with clashes in front of Tehran and Tel Aviv in April and October.
Iran and Russia signed a 20-year strategic cooperation agreement in Moscow in January, when the Kremlin hosted Iranian President Masoud Peshmerga. From the perspective of observers, with the signing of this treaty, which includes a preamble and 47 articles in all areas of bilateral relations, the level of interactions between Iran and Russia has been enhanced, the ground for advancing cooperation has been facilitated, and this treaty will be effective in the regional authority and cooperation of the two countries, focusing on the economic, political, security, and military fields.