Iran announced today (Saturday) that it intends to build and launch into space three new and sophisticated satellites of the "Khyam" model, which are capable of spying on Iran's neighbors in the Middle East, including Israel.
Iran denied that these were spy satellites and called the American criticism of the launch "childish".
The spokesman for the Iranian government, Ali Bahaduri Jahrumi, said: "Construction of three additional Khayam satellites, with the participation of a team of scientists from the Iranian Space Agency, is on the government's agenda and will begin soon."
Iran launched the first satellite of this model into space, but unusually they chose Tehran to carry out the launch with the help of Russia.
The satellite was launched from the Russian space base in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the Russian news agency "Tass" as well as the Iranian news agency "Tasnim" reported.
Putin and Raisi.
Suspicion that Russia is using an Iranian satellite, photo: AFP
The satellite was launched alongside other satellites on a Russian Soyuz 2.1 rocket.
Iran apparently chose to transfer the launch mission to the Russians after a series of failures of the Iranian missile program to put satellites into Earth orbit.
Last week, the American newspaper "Washington Post" reported from American security sources that Russia will have access for at least a few months to the satellite and that it may use it for the benefit of the war it is waging in Ukraine.
However, Iran rejected the claims and said that only Tehran has access to the encrypted data that will be received from the advanced satellite.
A statement from the Iranian Space Agency stated: "The satellite will be under the control of Iran from the first day of its operation. No third party will have access to the information that comes to us from the satellite in encrypted form."
Iran claims that the purpose of the satellite is to observe the country's borders as well as to assist long-term programs in agriculture and nature conservation in the country.
According to reports outside Iran, the purpose of the satellite is to allow the country to spy on neighboring countries and obtain high-level visual intelligence that was not available to Tehran until now.
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