News in Brief
US fears Iran could sell Russia ballistic missiles
REUTERS – The White House on Tuesday said Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States would monitor the situation between Iran and Russia and take appropriate action as needed.
In return for that support, he said Russia had been offering Tehran “unprecedented defense cooperation” including missiles, electronics, and air defense. Iran was seeking to purchase billions of dollars in military equipment from Russia including attack helicopters, radars, and combat trainer aircraft.
He said the Wagner mercenary group, at Russia’s direction, was preparing to provide air defense capabilities to either Hezbollah or Iran.
The Kremlin declined on Wednesday to comment on Kirby’s claim.
“We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular news briefing.
Iran seeks to nix dark shipping terminology
SPLASH – Iran is proposing amendments to a draft resolution on dark shipping at the upcoming meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Assembly.
In a document submitted ahead of a meeting next week, Iran said that the recently proposed resolution “shows a clear deviation of IMO’s concentration from its function and merit, as it includes controversial concepts and terms that lack precise and absolute definitions acceptable to all member states or within international law, such as dark ship or illicit.”