Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Russia is reportedly providing Iran with targeting information for attacks on U.S. Forces in the Middle East, marking the first indication that another major adversary of the United States is indirectly involved in the escalating conflict.
The assistance, previously unreported, signals that the rapidly evolving situation now includes a nuclear-armed opponent of the U.S. With significant intelligence capabilities, according to three U.S. Officials familiar with the intelligence. The development underscores growing regional tensions and raises concerns about the potential for wider escalation.
Since the conflict began on Saturday, Russia has been sharing the locations of U.S. Military assets with Iran, including warships and aircraft, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the intelligence findings. Moscow has called for an end to the conflict, which it has described as an “act of armed aggression without provocation.”
The extent of Russia’s assistance to Iran remains unclear. Officials noted that Iran’s own ability to track U.S. Forces has diminished in the less than a week since fighting began.
The CIA and Pentagon likewise declined to comment.
When asked this week about a message to Russia and China, both strong supporters of Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he had no message and that “they aren’t really a factor here.”
Two officials aware of Russia’s support for Iran said China does not appear to be assisting Iran’s defense, despite close ties between the two countries.
In a statement, the Chinese Embassy in Washington referred to Beijing’s diplomatic efforts to engage with partners in the region since the conflict began and said the conflict should “be stopped immediately.”
Analysts say the exchange of intelligence would align with the pattern of Iranian attacks on U.S. Forces, including command and control infrastructure, radar, and temporary structures, such as occurred in Kuwait where six service members were killed.
A CIA station at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, was also reportedly struck and destroyed in recent days. Parts of the embassy complex are “unrecoverable” and will need to be closed, according to an internal State Department assessment.
Iran “is conducting incredibly precise strikes on early warning radar or over-the-horizon radar,” said Dara Massicot, a Russian military expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “They’re doing it in a very targeted way. They’re going after command and control,” she added.
Iran possesses only a limited number of military-grade satellites and lacks its own satellite constellation, making imagery provided by Russia’s far more advanced space capabilities particularly valuable—especially as the Kremlin has refined its own targeting after years of war in Ukraine, according to Massicot.
Nicole Grajewski, who studies Iran-Russia cooperation at the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, said there is a high degree of “sophistication” in Iran’s retaliatory strikes, both in terms of the targets Tehran is selecting and its ability in some cases to defeat U.S. And allied defenses.
“They have been able to penetrate air defenses,” she said, noting that the quality of Iranian attacks appears to have improved even compared to last summer’s 12-day war with Israel.
Russia’s assistance represents a shift in how countries are involved in proxy wars since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Throughout the conflict, U.S. Adversaries including Iran, China, and North Korea have provided direct military assistance or material support to Russia’s extensive defense industry. The United States has provided Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in military equipment and shared intelligence about Russian positions to improve Kyiv’s targeting.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X that the Trump administration had requested assistance in helping to defend against Iranian drones and that Kyiv would provide “specialists” in response.
Iran has been a key supporter of Russia during the war in Ukraine, sharing technology to produce inexpensive one-way attack drones that have repeatedly been used to overwhelm Kyiv’s air defenses and deplete Western-donated interceptor supplies to protect Ukrainian cities.
“Russia is very aware of the assistance we’re providing to Ukraine,” said one U.S. Official familiar with Moscow’s support for Tehran. “I think they’re very happy to attempt to return the favor.”
While Russian intelligence gathering capabilities are not on par with those of the United States, they still rank among the best in the world, this official added.
The Kremlin itself sees potential benefits in a prolonged war between the U.S. And Iran, including higher oil revenues and an acute crisis diverting American and European attention from the war in Ukraine.
Iran, whose supreme leader was killed at the start of the conflict, could become the latest country to lose a pro-Russian government in recent years, following the Syrian uprising in late 2024 that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad and a U.S. Military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
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