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The meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Manila was officially focused on the war in Ukraine. However, it took place in a tense atmosphere following new reports that Russia may have played a larger role than has been publicly acknowledged in Iranian attacks on US military targets in the Middle East.
According to Reuters, Iran's drone attacks on facilities linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including its station at the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, have prompted US intelligence agencies to investigate whether Moscow has provided support to Tehran. Sources cited by Reuters say the precision and effectiveness of the attacks have raised suspicions of external assistance.
Earlier, The Washington Post reported that a CIA station at the US Embassy in Riyadh had been targeted, while CNN, citing US intelligence sources, reported that Russia had helped Iran locate US personnel and aircraft in the Gulf region.
Nicole Grajewski, a professor at the Center for International Research at Sciences Po university in Paris, told Al Jazeera that Russian involvement is a "realistic" hypothesis.
According to her, Iran does not have the military satellite capabilities that Russia has, which may explain the greater accuracy of the recent attacks.
" Iran does not have advanced space capabilities like Russia. Compared to Moscow, it does not have enough military satellites, so it seems likely that a deal has been reached with the Russians ," Grajewski said.
However, she stressed that Iran also has developed human intelligence networks in the region, which are often underestimated.
Closer cooperation after the war in Ukraine
Relations between Russia and Iran have strengthened significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Tehran supplied Moscow with Shahed drones and Fateh-110 ballistic missiles for use in war, while last year the two countries signed a 20-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.
However, Russian officials have insisted that the agreement does not constitute a military alliance and does not provide for mutual assistance in the event of conflict.
Previous reports have also claimed that Russia has supplied Iran with the Russian Kometa-M navigation system, designed to make drones more resistant to electronic interference. Parts of this system were reportedly found in the wreckage of a Shahed-136 drone after a failed Iranian attack on a British Royal Air Force base in Cyprus.
Moscow has denied these claims, calling the reports "fake news."
According to Grajewski, the escalation of the conflict between the US and Iran serves Russia's interests to some extent, as it distracts international attention from the war in Ukraine and could weaken the global influence of the United States.
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