Page 70 - IRANRptAug22

Iran and China agree to develop military cooperation
Iran’s IRGC unveils underground base for military drones
powers to relaunch the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA, that would curb Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the dropping of sanctions. Iran is demanding the designation is dropped. The US has so far shown no willingness to agree to that move. The IRGC supports allied militias across Middle East conflict zones, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran's arch-foe, Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed nation, increased its military budget by 3.1% to $24.3bn last year, according to SIPRI.
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.”
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 ceremony for the underground base.
“Our simultaneous shooting power has increased seven times, and the time needed to get ready for the shooting has dramatically decreased,” IRNA news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying.
The IRGC has previously released videos of its underground missile bases, dubbing them "underground missile cities". No footage of the underground drone bas was released.
The US has in recent months responded to the heightened threat posed by Iran’s combat drones in the region by announcing that its navy will be carrying a unique military drone force in Middle East waters, with both aerial and underwater drones always on standby for deployment.
70 IRAN Country Report August 2022 www.intellinews.com