White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the Wagner Group is preparing to provide an air defense system to Hezbollah or Iran as part of an "unprecedented cooperation."
According to information Kirby provided during a briefing he gave this Tuesday, Wagner would be acting under the direction of the Russian government as part of a military cooperation agreement between the American adversaries.
“Iran may be preparing to go a step further in its support for Russia. In return for that support, Russia has been offering Tehran unprecedented defense cooperation including on missiles electronics, and air defense,” he said.
Kirby announced that the White House is closely monitoring possible military transactions between allies to take whatever measures are considered appropriate.
“We are certainly prepared to use our counterterrorism sanctions authorities against Russian individuals or entities that might make these destabilizing transfers,” he said.
White House says intel shows Wagner Group preparing to arm ‘Hezbollah or Iran’ https://t.co/I1lBIGAido . Click to read ⬇️
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) November 21, 2023
Delivery of a missile system to Hezbollah
Recently, The Wall Street Journal published a report citing American officials, stating that the Russian mercenary group was planning to assist Hezbollah with the delivery of a sophisticated missile system known as SA-22 or Pantsir-S1.
The officials assured that the conversations between the Wagner Group and the Lebanese militia are already being monitored. Likewise, they announced that members of both Hezbollah and the Russian group have already been discovered in Syria.
Israel and Ukraine at risk
During the briefing, Kirby insisted that the military partnership between Iran and Russia is “obviously harmful to Ukraine,” but it is also “harmful to Iran’s neighbors” and to the rest of the international community.
“We're going to continue to use these [the sanctions] and other tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt Russians and Iranians expanding military partnership alongside our allies and partners,” he said.
