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European allies are publicly and privately telling American diplomats that Russia is directly and materially helping Iran’s war efforts beyond what the U.S. will publicly acknowledge, sources tell CBS News.
The Europeans are also continuing to argue that the war in Ukraine, the largest land war in Europe since World War II, is intertwined with the war in Iran due to the cooperation between Russia and Iran.
A U.K. official told CBS News that Russian-Iranian defense cooperation has ballooned in recent years, and Iranian technological advancement is now visible in the attacks in the Middle East. The United Kingdom assesses that Iran had not only transferred Shahed drones to Moscow for use on the battlefield in Ukraine but also production know-how to Russia, which has helped Iran refine its drone warfare. The U.K. official could not confirm a recent transfer of hardware to Iran by Russia.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot publicly described the relationship between Russia and Iran as “two-way cooperation.”
“There are reasons to believe that Russia is now supporting Iran’s military efforts, which appear to be directed in particular at American targets,” Barrot said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said in a social media post that his country had “irrefutable evidence” that the Russians are providing signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities to the Iranian regime. On Saturday, he said an intelligence briefing shows that U.S. military facilities in the Middle East and the Gulf region were “photographed by Russian satellites in the interests of Iran.”
He said in a social media post that Russia’s satellites captured images of the U.S.-U.K. joint military facility on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Kuwait International Airport, the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and locations in Turkey and Qatar.
In France, following the G7 meeting on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the cooperation between Iran and Russia.
“There is nothing Russia is doing for Iran that is in any way impeding or affecting our operation or the effectiveness of it. That’s the best way that I could put it,” Rubio told reporters.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy visited the United Arab Emirates, which has close relations with Russia. He has been offering the UAE the unique anti-drone technology used by Ukraine for defensive purposes, as the Gulf states that host U.S. bases have become recent targets of Iran.
Multiple sources, including a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge, told CBS News earlier in March that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran regarding U.S. positions in the Middle East. The European Union’s top diplomat said Thursday that Russia is providing intelligence support to Iran to “kill Americans.”
“We see that Russia is helping Iran with intelligence to target Americans, to kill Americans, and Russia is also supporting Iran now with the drones so that they can attack neighboring countries and also U.S. military bases,” Kaja Kallas told G7 leaders.
Also on Thursday, U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey told CBS News partner BBC News that he sees the “hidden hand of Putin” behind Iran’s war effort.
When asked about the reports of Russia sharing intelligence with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told “60 Minutes” that President Trump was “well aware of who’s talking to who” and said that “anything that shouldn’t be happening … is being confronted and confronted strongly.”
U.S. intelligence publicly disclosed this month that there is “selective cooperation” among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, driven by the common goal of “balancing U.S. efforts and actions,” but found it was short of “adversary alignment” of interests. The worldwide threat assessment by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence concluded that the four countries share concerns about directly confronting the U.S. which constrains the scope of their relationships.
In the meantime, there is high demand among Israel, Gulf allies and Ukraine to buy the U.S.-made interceptors used to take down incoming missiles.
Rubio argued that the U.S. sale and allocation of defensive equipment to Ukraine has not been negatively impacted by the need for interceptors in the Mideast. He said that the NATO mechanism to purchase that weaponry has been unaffected but he did acknowledge the U.S. may redirect weaponry in the future.
“If we need something for America and it’s American, we’re going to keep it for America first. But as of now, that has not happened.” Rubio said.
