Iran eyes ‘multi-billion export’ of military hardware

The Islamic Republic will resume large-scale arms trade after the UN ban comes to an end in next month, allowing Tehran to step into the profiting markets of weapons and defense technology

@the_news_21

New Delhi: In a major announcement set to make waves in international defense trade, Iran is planning to develop and sell large-scale military equipment and technology. Tehran’s decision to step into the market of weapons and armaments export comes a few weeks ahead of the UN arms embargo deadline.

The strong intent of Iran to flex its defense production muscle was expressed by the Head of the Iranian Defence Ministry’s Marine Industries Organisation, who stated that Tehran has the capability to produce large amounts of military equipment and sell them directly to foreign buyers.

“We possess the potential to export billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment in a year,” Admiral Amir Rastegari said while adding that the Marine Industries Organisation is in the process of building a new submarine named Be’sat (meaning ‘mission’ in Arabic).

“Developing a prototype submarine normally takes around 15 years in other nations. However, given Iran’s experience with the Fateh and Ghadir submarines, we try our best to do it in a shorter span of time,” Rastegari said. The military official in December 2019 had said that the Iranian submarine is scheduled to be ready in 10-12 years.

Rastegari also shared that the Army’s destroyers will soon be equipped with vertical-launch cruise missiles. He noted that a destroyer named Dena will be delivered to the military forces by the end of March 2021.

Also Read: India’s policy on IOR needs an underwater vision

A proposal from Washington to extend the arms embargo on Tehran won support from only the Dominican Republic at a UN Security Council vote, in August. The arms trade restrictions are due to expire in October under UN Resolution 2231, which accompanies the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). The US government, which left the JCPOA in 2018, says it has now activated a so-called ‘sanctions snapback mechanism’ to enact the embargo extension and return of all previously lifted UN sanctions by 20 September. However, Iran and the remaining signatories to the deal say the US has no standing to make such a demand as it is no longer in the deal.

President Hassan Rouhani has previously insisted that the Islamic Republic will resume arms trade after the UN ban comes to an end next month.