Iran to get high-resolution Russian satellite soon

Agencies | Tehran

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A day before resuming talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, security concerns over Iran procuring an advanced satellite reconnaissance system brought fresh tensions in the Middle East over its true intentions.

Concerns rose as a Washington Post report emerged claiming that Russia is preparing to provide Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East.

The plan, the Post said, is to deliver a Russian-made Kanopus-V satellite with a high-resolution camera, which is to launch from Russia within months.

The paper confirms that the satellite allows “continuous monitoring of facilities ranging from oil refineries and Israeli military bases to Iraqi barracks that house US troops.” The Post report quotes three unnamed sources - a current and a former US official and a senior Middle Eastern government official briefed on the sale.

“The leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have made several trips to Russia since 2018 to help negotiate the agreement,” the Post said for sealing the Kanopus-V deal.

Russian experts travelled to Iran this spring to help train crews who would operate the satellite from a newly built facility near Karaj west of Tehran, it added.

The satellite would feature Russian hardware, the Post said, “including a camera with a resolution of 1.2 meters — a significant improvement over Iran’s current capabilities, though still far short of the quality achieved by US spy satellites.”