Vladimir Putin’s “hidden hand” is behind Iran’s military methods, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said after a night in which drones attacked a camp used by Western forces in Erbil, northern Iraq.
Healey spoke after British officers at the UK military headquarters in north-west London told him that Iranian pilots and Iranian proxy drone pilots were increasingly adopting tactics “from the Russians”.
Iran has already fired more than 2,000 Shahed drones (long-range weapons widely used by Russia against Ukraine) throughout the Middle East in response to the US-Israeli attack launched on February 28.
Lt. Gen. Nick Perry, head of joint operations, told Healey that Russia had since returned tactical advice to Iran and its proxies on how to blow them up.
Iranian drone pilots now “fly them much lower and therefore are more effective” in hitting targets, Perry said. That had “proved problematic,” he said, because the Shahed drones were becoming one of Tehran’s most effective weapons as the conflict approaches its third week.
During the night, several drones attacked a Western military camp in Erbil, where British military personnel were located. A UK counterattack team shot down two others. There were no British casualties.
Speaking to reporters after his briefing, Healey said: “I think it will surprise no one to believe that Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics and potentially some of their capabilities as well.”
He argued that this is in part “because the only world leader who is benefiting from sky-high oil prices right now is Putin, because it helps him with a new supply of funds for his brutal war in Ukraine.”
Russia and Iran have cooperated on military issues since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Iran supplying and then passing on the design of the Shahed 136 deltaing drones. US sources say that in return, Moscow has passed on military intelligence to Tehran in the past fortnight, although the Kremlin denies this.
Healey said he had discussed the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz with the E5 group of European defense ministers on Wednesday, and that there were “increasingly clear” reports that Iran was trying to undermine the strategic waterway through which around a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
The UK had some “autonomous systems” available in the Middle East that could be used to search for Iranian mines, although a mine hunting ship previously in the region, HMS Middleton, had returned to the UK for maintenance.
The effective closure of the strait, partly through drone attacks on oil tankers and cargo ships, has driven the price of oil to around $100 a barrel. The quickest way to end the blockade would be “a de-escalation of conflict,” Healey said.
He did not rule out the UK eventually taking part in a possible convoy of merchant ships through the waterway, but a formal proposal is not believed to be close as the US wavers on the issue.
Britain has no warships available in or near the region apart from HMS Dragon, which set sail on Tuesday for Cyprus, where it will protect UK air bases, on a voyage expected to last up to a week.
