Russia is providing Iran with intelligence for strikes against US forces.

Russia is passing information to Iran to target American forces in the Middle East. This is the first sign that another major US adversary is, albeit indirectly, participating in the war, writes The Washington Post.

Russia's aid to Iran signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now extends to one of the United States' top nuclear rivals with sophisticated intelligence capabilities.

From the first days of the war, which began on February 28, Russia transmitted data to Iran on the location of American military facilities, including ships and aircraft, said three sources who wished to remain anonymous.

"It looks like it's a pretty large-scale, complex operation," one of them said.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, responding to a request from The Washington Post on March 6, declined to comment on these intelligence reports. Moscow, calling the events an "unprovoked act of armed aggression," called for an end to the war.

The extent of Russia's assistance to Iran in targeting the strikes remains unclear. According to sources, in less than a week of fighting, the Iranian military's own ability to detect American forces has already been significantly reduced.

An Iranian drone attack in Kuwait on March 1 killed six American service members and wounded several others. Iran launched thousands of kamikaze drones and hundreds of missiles at American military installations, embassies, and civilian targets. Meanwhile, a joint US-Israeli operation struck more than 2,000 Iranian targets, including ballistic missile sites, naval forces, and facilities associated with the country's leadership.

"The Iranian regime is suffering a crushing defeat," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, without commenting on Russia's possible assistance to Iran. She added that "retaliatory ballistic missile strikes are becoming less frequent, naval forces are being destroyed, industrial capacity is being disrupted, and allied forces are offering little resistance."

When asked this week about a message to Russia and China, two of Iran's most influential supporters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he had no such message. Furthermore, he said, "They don't really play a role here."

Two sources familiar with Russian support for Iran said China, despite its close ties to Tehran, does not appear to be helping it defend itself.

A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing had been holding diplomatic consultations with its partners in the region since the start of the war and believed the conflict should end immediately.

Analysts say the intelligence sharing provides a good explanation for the nature of Iranian strikes on American targets, including command posts, radar stations and temporary structures such as the one in Kuwait that killed six service members.

In recent days, a CIA facility on the grounds of the US Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, was struck and destroyed. According to an internal State Department assessment, part of the embassy building was damaged beyond repair and must be closed. Other parts of the complex will be unusable for at least another month.

"Iran is launching very precise strikes against early-warning radars and over-the-horizon radar stations," noted Dara Massicot, an expert on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "These strikes are very targeted—they're aimed at troop command and control systems."

Iran has only a few military satellites and lacks its own full-fledged satellite constellation, so imagery and data from more advanced Russian space systems could be extremely valuable. This is especially true, Massicot noted, given that Russia has significantly improved its targeting methods during the war in Ukraine.

Nicole Grayevsky of the Harvard Kennedy School, who studies Iran-Russia cooperation, said Iran's retaliatory strikes show a high level of technical sophistication, both in their targeting and in their ability, in some cases, to penetrate U.S. and allied air defense systems.

“Their strikes penetrate air defense systems,” she stated, noting that the effectiveness of Iranian attacks had apparently increased even compared to the 12-day war with Israel last summer.

According to people familiar with the situation, the Pentagon is rapidly depleting its stockpiles of precision-guided munitions and interceptor missiles for air defense systems. This confirms concerns previously expressed by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kaine when President Donald Trump was deciding on the operation. The US administration tried to downplay the significance of this assessment.

Russia's aid changes the landscape of proxy warfare between various countries that has been ongoing since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During this war, US adversaries, including Iran, China, and North Korea, provided Moscow with either direct military aid or material support for its defense industry. The US, in turn, transferred tens of billions of dollars' worth of military equipment to Ukraine and shared intelligence on Russian troop positions.

On March 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that the Trump administration had asked Kyiv to help defend against Iranian drones, and Ukraine would send specialists in response to this request.

Iran has become one of Russia's key allies in the war against Ukraine, transferring technology for producing cheap kamikaze attack drones, which are regularly used to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and deplete Western stockpiles of interceptor missiles.

"The Russians are well aware of the assistance we provide to Ukraine," said one source familiar with Moscow's support for Tehran. "I think they were pleased to have the opportunity to reciprocate in part."

At the same time, he added, Russian intelligence capabilities are inferior to those of the American ones, but still remain among the best in the world.

The Kremlin, despite the blow to one of its closest partners, also sees potential benefits in a protracted war between the US and Iran – including increased oil revenues and a serious crisis that distracts the US and Europe from the war in Ukraine.

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Iran, whose supreme leader was killed early in the conflict, could become another country that has long since lost its pro-Russian leadership. This happened after the uprising in Syria in late 2024 that led to the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and the US military raid in January that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

However, the lack of direct Russian military involvement is also explained by the fact that Moscow needs to concentrate its resources elsewhere, Massicot noted.

According to her, the Kremlin "largely believes that this isn't their problem and it's not their war. In terms of strategic priorities, Ukraine remains the undisputed top priority."

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