Page 69 - IRANRptJun22

Iran and China agree to develop military cooperation
Iran’s IRGC unveils underground base for military drones
Jeremy Binnie, Middle East defence specialist at the global intelligence company Janes, as reported by RFE/RL.
"We don’t know if this is the type that Tajikistan will actually produce," Binnie told the media outlet. However, he added, "the Ababil-2 really isn't the best type for countering militants."
The drone is said to be a low-ranking member of Iran's increasingly advanced fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and would not appear to be a game changer militarily or a cash cow for Iran's efforts to export arms.
The model has been around for about 15 years and comes in strike, reconnaissance, and a "dummy" version used as a target for air-defence training, Binnie was further cited as saying. More advanced drones in Iran's fleet of UAVs, including the Mohajer-6 or the new Abadil-5, would be better suited to countering a militant threat due to electro-optical systems that enable persistent surveillance and their ability to launch guided weapons, he added. Iran and Tajikistan each share a border with Afghanistan, albeit on opposite ends of the war-torn country.
Tajikistan has grown anxious about the cross-border threat it could face from militants and terrorist groups starting to thrive in Afghanistan since the US military exited the country last year, leading to the return to power of the Taliban.
Tehran and Beijing have agreed to develop military cooperation and conduct more joint defence exercises, ILNA reported on April 28.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi the previous day outlined his government’s desire for closer cooperation with China in remarks made during a visit by the Chinese National Defence Minister Wei Fenghe.
Raisi was quoted by local media as telling Wei that Tehran regards its ties with Beijing as strategic. Closer cooperation would help to confront what the Iranian president said was US unilateralism. There is some concern in the West that a three-way economic and military mechanism could eventually emerge out of strengthening relations between Tehran, Beijing and Moscow.
“Confronting unilateralism and creating stability and order is possible through cooperation of independent and like-minded powers,” Raisi was quoted as saying.
Wei remarked that better ties between Iran and China would increase security, “particularly in the current critical and tense situation.”
Wei invited Iranian counterpart, General Mohammad Reza Ashtinai, to visit China.
In recent years, the navies of Iran and China have visited each other’s ports and held joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean.
In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement ranging across numerous economic fields. As things stand, the agreement is regarded more as a ‘roadmap’ pointing to potential for tens of billions of dollars of cooperation.
China is a signatory to the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA, between Iran and world powers. The other remaining signatories are Russia, Britain, France and Germany. Talks to bring the US back into the JCPOA and relaunch it as a functioning accord have lately stalled.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has unveiled an underground base for military drones. In doing so, the elite force warned that up to 60 drones can be simultaneously launched to hit targets in the region.
IRGC commander-in-chief Major General Hossein Salami and the Guard’s aerospace commander General Amir Ali Hajizadeh attended the inauguration
69 IRAN Country Report June 2022 www.intellinews.com