Iran agreed a secret €500mn arms deal with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired missiles in its most significant effort to rebuild air defences shattered during last year’s war with Israel.
The agreement, signed in Moscow in December, commits Russia to deliver 500 man-portable “Verba” launch units and 2,500 “9M336” missiles over three years, according to leaked Russian documents seen by the FT and several people familiar with the deal.
The Verba is one of Russia’s most modern air-defence systems, a shoulder-fired, infrared-guided missile capable of targeting cruise missiles, low-flying aircraft and drones.
Operated by small mobile teams, it allows ground forces to quickly create dispersed defences without relying on fixed radar installations that are more vulnerable to strikes.
The leaked details of the Iran-Russia deal have emerged just as Donald Trump has assembled a vast US military force in the Middle East, threatening Tehran with strikes unless it accepts curbs on its nuclear programme.
Under the €495mn Verba contract, the deliveries are scheduled in three tranches, running from 2027 through 2029. One person familiar with the transaction said it was possible a smaller number of the systems could have been delivered to Iran early.
Tehran formally requested the systems last July, according to a contract seen by the FT, just days after the end of the 12-day conflict in which the US briefly joined Israel in strikes on Iran’s three key nuclear facilities.
During that campaign, Iran’s integrated air-defence network was heavily degraded, enabling Israel’s air force to rapidly establish and sustain air superiority over large parts of the country.
Russia would likely have viewed the deal as a way to help rebuild ties with Iran after it conspicuously failed to come to its ally’s aid during the 12-day war with Israel, a former senior US official said.
“They want Iran to remain their partner. And so even if they can’t react in the middle of a crisis, they’re going to look after the crisis to try to patch up the relationship,” they said.
The new Verba deal with Russia was negotiated between Rosoboronexport, the Kremlin’s state arms export agency, and the Moscow representative of Iran’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, known as MODAFL.
The contract was arranged by Ruhollah Katebi, a Moscow-based MODAFL official who previously helped broker Iran’s sale of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles for use in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US sanctioned Katebi in 2024 for acting on behalf of MODAFL and has been described by the US Treasury as “the Russian government’s point of contact” with Tehran’s defence ministry.
Iran’s ambassador to Moscow appeared to confirm this week that several recent flights from Russia contained military cargo.
“It’s been some years that we have signed strong military and defence agreements with Russia. I can only say that these aircraft demonstrate that those agreements are being implemented,” Kazem Jalali told state television, without elaborating.
One Russian Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo plane has made at least three runs from Mineralnye Vody in the northern Caucasus to the Iranian city of Karaj in the past eight days. At least one more Il-76 flew from Mineralnye Vody to Iran in late December.
Iran reportedly received up to six Russian Mi-28 attack helicopters in January and operated one of them in Tehran this month.
According to documents seen by the FT, Rosoboronexport is selling Iran the 9M336 missiles at €170,000 per unit and the launching mechanisms at €40,000. Russia regularly prices international arms sales in euros and dollars in spite of western economic sanctions.
The deal also includes 500 “Mowgli-2” night vision sights to track aircraft and other targets in darkness.
The Iranian embassy in London did not respond to emailed questions about the deal. The Kremlin declined to comment. Rosoboronexport did not respond to a request for comment.
The Verba units are a cost-efficient, affordable way for Russia to boost Iran’s air defences without weakening its own, said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based think-tank.
Even if some units have been delivered and deployed in Iran, they are unlikely to significantly bolster Tehran’s overall defences in a new war with Israel or the US.
But Pukhov said they could make it risky for the US to carry out operations involving helicopters and low-flying aircraft — tactics used in the recent capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
“If there’s some kind of helicopter assault like with Maduro, these could really come in handy for the Iranians,” he said. “US-made Stingers and ours are the only truly mobile launch units. If you give them to the right people at the right time, they can do a lot of damage.”
The agreement signals ongoing military co-operation between the two countries at a time of heightened western scrutiny.
Tehran has supplied Moscow with drones and missiles over the past two years during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the two countries signed a treaty strengthening bilateral ties in January 2025.
Iran has sought to acquire two squadrons of the advanced Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, though officials in Tehran have complained about delays in fulfilling the order.
Moscow’s willingness to supply Tehran with arms also indicates Russia has no interest in observing UN “snapback” sanctions against Iran, according to Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
The UK, France and Germany triggered the sanctions, which include an arms export ban to Iran last year, amid rising tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po and an expert on the Iran-Russia strategic relationship, said the deal indicates a change in Tehran’s strategy after Israel devastated its air defences last year.
Unlike larger Russian strategic air defence systems such as the S-300 and S-400, the Verbas do not require extensive training and integration and can be adopted far more quickly.
The Verbas have not played a significant role in Russia’s defences against Ukrainian drone attacks, meaning Moscow could have been more willing to part with them than other systems.
“None of these transfers will radically alter Iran’s ability to match the capabilities of the most advanced conventional military in the world but it can prolong the next war,” Grajewski added.
Additional reporting by Chris Cook
Illustration by Ian Bott and Bob Haslett