https://www.iiss.org/online-analysi...y-of-un-limitations-on-irans-missile-exports/
24th October 2023
IISS experts on the expiry of UN limitations on Iran’s missile exports
Now that important UN Security Council restrictions have been lifted, will Iran begin exporting advanced missiles and UAVs to Russia for use against Ukraine?
Source: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, CC BY 4.0 DEED
On 18 October 2023, the limits imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Iran’s trade in advanced missiles and uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) expired. The day before, Russia
announced that it would no longer observe these limits and called on ‘European countries’ to abandon their own related restrictions on Iran. This raises questions, such as whether Iran will sell missiles or more capable UAVs to Russia for use against Ukraine and whether the countries will increase cooperation on missile and UAV technologies.
Resolution 2231 limits
William Alberque
The Security Council
imposed trade limitations affecting Iran’s missile and UAV programmes as part of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on 14 July 2015, a deal sought by the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany and the European Union to limit Iran’s nuclear activities and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Resolution 2231, adopted on 20 July 2015 to support JCPOA implementation, imposed limitations that went into effect 90 days later (on 18 October 2015, or ‘Adoption Day’), including on non-nuclear issues such as conventional-arms transfers, missiles and UAVs. These applied to all UN member states and could be lifted only with prior approval from the Security Council. The restrictions were time-limited, however. Restrictions on conventional arms transfers, which included sales or purchases of missiles and armed UAVs, expired in 2020; those on missiles and UAVs,
described in Annex B, paragraphs three and four of the resolution, expired on 18 October 2023; and
limitations on Iran’s nuclear activities will expire in October 2025.
The now-expired restrictions in Resolution 2231 applied to nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and any launches of these missiles (Annex B, paragraph three); they also prevented UN member states from participating in the supply, sale or transfer to or from Iran of any items, materials, equipment, goods or technologies
described in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) (Annex B, paragraph four).
The differing definitions used in paragraphs three and four is important. The paragraph-three definitions are commonly understood to apply to the most-restricted ‘Category I’ systems designated by the MTCR: rockets and UAVs with a range of at least 300 kilometres and a payload capacity of at least 500 kilograms. Paragraph four, however, includes both ‘Category I’ and ‘Category II’ systems, including missiles and UAVs with a payload capacity
under 500 kg. Thus, Iran was, until 18 October, prohibited from trade related to all guided or unguided rockets and UAVs with a range of 300 km or more.
France,
Germany, Ukraine and the
United Kingdom have accused Iran of violating paragraph-four limits by transferring UAVs to Russia. The UK
presented evidence to the UN of Iranian missile and UAV transfers, including missiles, UAVs and related components seized at sea and recovered in Ukraine in May 2023. On 12 October 2023, the United States
joined them and
provided a briefing by its Defense Intelligence Agency demonstrating that Russia had deployed Iranian UAVs in Ukraine. Iran and Russia
have refuted these claims, stating that the evidence is insufficient to prove UAVs transfers had occurred or that Russia had used Iranian-made or designed UAVs against Ukraine. Russia has even
claimed that the MTCR guidelines are inapplicable, despite the fact that Resolution 2231 refers to MTCR definitions specifically in Annex B, paragraph four.
The EU, France, Germany, the UK and the US have said that they will continue to implement restrictions on Iran’s conventional-weapons trade as well as its trade in missiles and UAVs, despite the expiry of the restrictions in paragraphs three and four.
Iranian hesitancy regarding ballistic-missile exports
Fabian Hinz
The UN’s ban on conventional-arms transfers involving Iran were described in Resolution 2231, Annex B, paragraph five; they
expired on 18 October 2020, and after that time, Iran began a concerted effort to promote its defence exports. This included an
overhaul of its defence-export website,
an increased presence at international trade shows and a special permanent exhibition
showcasing its defence products available for export.
Initially, it seemed that Iran was interested in exporting its ballistic missiles despite the UN prohibitions on doing so. It released English-language promotional material for several of its ballistic-missile designs, introduced new export designations for several systems and advertised the following tactical systems as available for export: the 300 km-range
Fateh-110 (export designation
BM-300), the 440 km-range
Fateh-313 (
BM-440), the 500 km-range
Zoheir, the 700km-range
Zolfaghar (
BM-700), the 1,000 km-range
Qiam (
BM-1000), the 1,750 km-range
Emad (
BM-1750) and the 270 km-range anti-ship ballistic missile
Khalij-e Fars (
BM-270ST). Despite this marketing drive, no observed missile transfers from Iran to other UN member states have occurred since the expiry of the arms embargo (although Tehran has transferred systems to non-state allies such as Hizbullah). While Iranian officials
have said that Tehran will transfer
Fateh-110 or
Zolfaghar missiles to Moscow, this does not appear to have occurred.
In a June 2023 interview, Seyyed Mahdi Farahi, deputy defence minister and former head of Aerospace Industries Organization,
said that Iran had many potential customers for its missiles but that his ministry had to ‘follow the larger policy of the country’. This suggests that Iran has not engaged in missile transfers for political reasons. Farahi added that ‘with our other defence products like rifles, bullets and artillery we do not have the same type of restrictions’, a reference to the UN's restrictions on conventional-arms transfers ending in 2020.
Farahi’s claims about Iranian self-restraint contrast with the country’s well-documented history of ballistic-missile proliferation in the Middle East. It
has transferred ballistic or cruise missiles to Damascus and non-state actors in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and potentially Syria, often in violation of international law and incurring significant political cost in the process. The most plausible explanation for this contradiction is that Iran’s missile-export policy is compartmentalised: Tehran is willing to share missiles with its ideological and security partners in the region irrespective of the political costs or international legal obligations, while exports beyond the so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’ are subject to additional considerations, including Resolution 2231 restrictions.
The expiry of Resolution 2231’s missile restrictions in October 2023 is therefore unlikely to have major implications for Iran’s regional proliferation with its traditional non-state allies, but it could catalyse Iranian ballistic and cruise-missile exports outside the region. The reputational costs for prospective buyers of Iranian missiles are now much lower. Iran may choose to export partial rather than complete systems or engage in technology transfer. In August, a defence official
told Fars News Agency that Iran considers its readiness to transfer technology and engage in joint production a key comparative advantage on the international arms market.
Russian interest in Iranian missile systems
Zuzanna Gwadera
Since September 2022, Iran
has supplied Russia with
Shahed-131 and
Shahed-136 UAVs, becoming one of Russia’s only wartime arms suppliers. Russia reportedly
requested the sale of Iranian ballistic missiles in October 2022; however, the absence of any Iranian ballistic-missile wreckage in Ukraine attests that this sale has not been completed. Notwithstanding, Moscow likely remains interested in Iranian missile systems to help replenish its stockpiles, evinced in September 2023 by Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu’s
tour of a missile exhibition at the aerospace unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran. Iran and Russia are reportedly
working towards a ‘long-term agreement’ on military and defence cooperation, likely in an attempt to strengthen their burgeoning military ties, which have previously
suffered from the impact of sanctions and disputes over arms deliveries.
Moscow’s procurement of Iranian missile systems could have implications for the war in Ukraine. Early in the war, Russia failed to destroy critical Ukrainian targets due to constraints on its ability to launch strikes simultaneously and Moscow’s likely assessment that its operation would be completed quickly. As the war stalemated, Russia increased the number of strikes it conducted, especially against vulnerable Ukrainian assets such as its national infrastructure. But this has likely depleted Russia’s arsenal of precision-guided munitions, some of which are reliant on Western-made components. In response, Russia has increased its efforts to produce more systems and circumvent export controls such as the MTCR.
Russia is conceivably interested in the
Fateh-110,
Fateh-313 and
Zolfaghar – all short-range ballistic missiles with ranges from 300–700 km. Similar Russian missiles have performed well against Ukrainian air defences. While subsonic land-attack cruise missiles have a poor record achieving military objectives in Ukraine, this has been in part due to poor mission planning and execution. They have proved more useful when supplemented by large numbers of Iranian direct-attack munitions, which are relatively inexpensive and have been deployed to place pressure on Ukrainian air defences. Moscow also may be interested in Iranian land-attack cruise missiles such as those in the 351/
Quds/
Paveh family, in part because they are likely cheaper than Russian equivalents.
According to US Central Command, Iran
possesses the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East, with an estimated 2,500–3,000 missiles in its inventory. The size of Iran’s arsenal indicates that Tehran has the
capacity for mass production and could supply Russia with a significant number of additional ballistic and cruise missiles, potentially adding firepower to Russia’s missile campaign against fixed targets. Other factors, however, (especially Russia’s limited intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and its slowness in detecting and disseminating target information) could ultimately limit the efficacy of procured Iranian missiles against Ukrainian targets.
This article is part of a series from the Missile Dialogue Initiative (MDI) focusing on selected missile and arms-control developments. The MDI aims to strengthen international discussion and promote a high-level exchange of views on missile technologies and related international-security dynamics.
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