US sends Iranian weapons to Ukraine
- Weapons from 'stateless' vessels
- Insufficient aid
- Concern over the strengthening of the China-Russia alliance
Washington wants to build up Ukraine's arms muscle. In addition to the increasingly complex situation on the battlefield, there are concerns about Chinese collaboration in the Russian invasion. The US has reacted by sending to Ukraine a consignment of arms and ammunition that was seized by US forces on their way to Yemen to add to the arsenal of Iranian-backed Houthi militias.
Weapons from 'stateless' vessels
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that the US government had sent a new batch of weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion on Thursday. This time, however, the arms shipped belonged to four 'stateless' vessels intercepted between May 2021 and February 2023.
They include more than 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers and half a million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition. The US military claims that these weapons, although transported on unflagged vessels, belonged to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. CENTCOM is committed to working with our allies and partners to counter the flow of Iranian lethal assistance in the region by all lawful means, including US and UN sanctions and interdiction.
Insufficient aid
This is one of the warnings from Washington. They know that this aid is not enough to keep Vladimir Putin's forces at bay, nor was the 300 million dollar package supplied in March, consisting of artillery shells and munitions for air defence and anti-armour systems. Knowing that its depletion is a matter of - little - time, the US is trying to pass a large additional package that has been blocked for months by Republicans.
The Biden administration is working to push through a plan that would allocate around 60 billion dollars to Ukraine. However, Republican reluctance is preventing it from going ahead. As a result, the US government had to find new ways to secure last month's 300 million in aid. To get it, it turned to the Pentagon, using "unanticipated savings" from arms contracts, as White House security adviser Jake Sullivan announced at the time.
"It turns out that we negotiated well and those contracts came in under budget, so we have a modest amount of funding available," was Sullivan's explanation for Biden's recourse to provide aid to Ukraine. And one of the reasons for this is that there is more at stake in Ukraine than many want to see, especially since China increased its cooperation with the Kremlin, setting off alarm bells in the West.
Concern over the strengthening of the China-Russia alliance
Concern is growing in the corridors of the White House. As instability rages unabated in the Middle East, China is strengthening its partnership with Russia. The provision of geospatial intelligence reportedly aimed at boosting Russian potential in the Ukrainian war worries the US. So is the satellite imagery that China is providing to Moscow for military purposes along with microelectronics and tank equipment.
In view of this rapprochement, made all the more evident by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Beijing, Washington has put its closest allies on notice. According to Bloomberg, the United States has warned of the improvement in ties between these two historic allies, which could now tip the balance in the war in Ukraine.
In an attempt to calm the waters, it was Joe Biden himself who conveyed his concern to his Chinese counterpart in a phone call last week. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has also come forward to ask his European allies to redouble their efforts in the face of the worrying increase in cooperation between Russia and China. A growth in the partnership that can do the most damage to the United States and which is playing one of its most momentous chess games on the Ukrainian chessboard.