The head of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) said on Thursday that Iran seeks to "increase" shipments of advanced weapons to Russia, which is fighting a war in Ukraine.
At the end of last October, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that he shared intelligence with the United States that Iranian drones were used in the war in Ukraine.
In a speech delivered Thursday evening at the Israeli presidency on the occasion of the celebration of what is known as the Jewish holiday of lights, Mossad chief David Parnia said - according to what was reported by the local press - that Iran intends to deliver advanced equipment to Russia, without further details.
"We warn of Iran's future intentions, which this country is trying to hide, which is to increase its shipments of advanced weapons to Russia," Parnia said.
He added, "We have shed light on arms shipments to Russia despite Iran's familiar lies," stressing that his apparatus, which Tehran accuses of sabotaging some of its nuclear sites and assassinating its scientists, has "extensive" knowledge of the situation in Iran.
Israel accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb, and says it is seeking by all means to prevent it from doing so, as well as to counter its influence in the Middle East.
In a related development, Daoud Jafari, colonel in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and an adviser to the Airspace Forces, was killed last Monday near Damascus, when an explosive device exploded, which Israel was accused of being behind.
The Aerospace Division of the Revolutionary Guards specializes in manufacturing drones, ballistic missiles, and satellites.
After the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine last February, Israel initially took a cautious stance towards Moscow, emphasizing the special relations between the two countries due to the presence of more than a million citizens of the former Soviet Union in Israel, while Russia deploys forces in neighboring Syria.
In the same context, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid believes that the war is a "serious violation of the international order," but the Israeli authorities said that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone yesterday, Thursday, with Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue of Ukraine.