US President Donald Trump has said he believes that Vladimir Putin and Russia are helping Iran “a bit” amid the conflict with the US and Israel.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump acknowledged that the US also helps Ukrainian forces as they battle with Russian forces.
According to some US media reports, Russia has been sharing the location of US military forces with Iran that could help guide missile and drone attacks across the Middle East.
On Thursday, US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that Russia’s government had assured the Trump administration that it was not providing intelligence to the Iranian government in Tehran.
Asked by Fox about the potential of Russian intelligence being shared with Iran, Trump said that “I think he [Putin] may be helping them a bit, yeah”.
“He probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine,” Trump added. “They do it, and we do it.”
Citing US officials and a former Russian intelligence officer, the Wall Street Journal last week reported that the information being shared includes the coordinates of US military ships and aircraft that could be used for targeting by Iran.
Iran has limited satellite capabilities of its own, meaning that any data or locations derived by Russian satellites could fill significant gaps in Iranian intelligence gathering.
Trump has previously been dismissive of the potential impact that Russian intelligence could have on the conflict.
“If they are, they’re not doing a very good job,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on 7 March. “Iran is not doing too well.”
The president’s comments to Fox come after the US moved to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil, as Trump tries to contain soaring oil prices with the conflict entering its third week.
While US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent initially said that the “narrowly tailored, short-term measure” would not provide “significant financial benefit” to Moscow, he later backtracked, telling Sky News it was “an inevitability” and “unfortunate”.
The Kremlin welcomed the move, with special envoy Kirill Dmitriev saying in a statement that “the United States is effectively acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable”.
While US intelligence has reportedly been used in Ukraine to help Kyiv with targeting strategic military sites and oil and gas facilities, that assistance was temporarily paused in March last year following tense meetings between US and Ukrainian officials.–BBC
