An Iranian satellite launched by Russia on Sunday blasted off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit amid controversy that Moscow might use it to boost its surveillance of military targets in Ukraine.
As Russia’s international isolation grows following Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to pivot toward the Middle East, Asia and Africa and find new clients for its embattled space program.
At the Moscow-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe, Yury Borisov, director-general of the state space corporation Roscosmos, hailed “an important milestone in Russian-Iranian bilateral cooperation, opening the way to the implementation of new and even larger projects.”
Photo: Roscosmos / Handout via Reuters
Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Issa Zarepour, who also attended the launch of the Khayyam satellite, called the event “historic” and “a turning point for the start of a new interaction in the field of space between our two countries.”
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani wrote on Twitter that “the brilliant path of scientific and technological progress of the Islamic republic of Iran continues despite sanctions and the enemies’ maximum pressure.”
Iran, which has maintained ties with Moscow and refrained from criticism of the Ukraine invasion, has sought to deflect suspicions that Moscow could use Khayyam to spy on Ukraine.
Responding to the launch, Washington said Russia’s growing cooperation with Iran should be viewed as a “profound threat.”
“We are aware of reports that Russia launched a satellite with significant spying capabilities on Iran’s behalf,” a US Department of State spokesperson said.
“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat,” they added.
Last week, the Washington Post quoted anonymous Western intelligence officials as saying that Russia “plans to use the satellite for several months or longer” to assist its war efforts before allowing Iran to take control.
Less than two hours after the satellite was launched on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, the Iranian Space Agency said that the agency’s ground stations had already received “first telemetric data.”
The agency on Sunday said that the Islamic republic would control the satellite “from day one” in an apparent reaction to the Post’s report.
“No third country is able to access the information” sent by the satellite due to its “encrypted algorithm,” it said.
The purpose of Khayyam is to “monitor the country’s borders,” enhance agricultural productivity and monitor water resources and natural disasters, according to the space agency.
Khayyam, apparently named after the 11th-century Persian polymath Omar Khayyam, is not the first Iranian satellite Russia has put into space. In 2005, Iran’s Sina-1 satellite was deployed from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
Iran is negotiating with world powers, including Moscow, to salvage a 2015 deal aimed at reining in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The US — which quit the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018 under then-US president Donald Trump — has accused Iran of effectively supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine while adopting a “veil of neutrality.”
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