Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company to buy Chinese satellite equipment linked to its drone program, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Leaked commercial contracts and shipping records from the company show that the IRGC's Aerospace Force reportedly acquired a Chinese-made 4.5-meter motorized satellite antenna manufactured by StarWin in late 2025.
The technology was reportedly sent from Shanghai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas aboard the Chinese container ship Zhong Gu Yin Chuan.
After landing in Dubai on August 28, 2025, the ship left behind a container, which was then collected on November 23, 2025, by the Iranian Rama III, according to the Financial Times.
This ship’s GPS showed that the Rama III sailed from the Persian Gulf, pausing briefly off the coast of Oman; however, upon reviewing satellite imagery from the same day, the Financial Times found that the ship was not in its reported position, indicating that the vessel may have been “spoofing.”
Satellite footage shows vessel entering Bandar Abbas port
Four days later, on November 29, the Financial Times reported that satellite imagery of Bandar Abbas showed a vessel of the same size and color as the Rama III entering the port.
The shipment, which was dated October 2025 and described in customs documents seen by the Financial Times as “antenna and accessories,” weighed nearly 1.8 tonnes split across six cases.
According to a contract seen by the Financial Times, Telesun - a self-described “UAE-based provider of fixed and mobile satellite communications systems across the Middle East and North Africa” - acquired the equipment on behalf of Ertebatat Faragostar Kish (EFK), an Iranian telecommunications company working on a project for Iran’s Saman Industrial Group.
Telesun, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry, and Iran’s London embassy did not respond to the Financial Times’s request for comment.
Chinese companies reportedly planning clandestine arms sales to Iran
Two weeks ago, The New York Times, citing US officials, reported that Chinese companies have been plotting to carry out clandestine arms sales to Iran, transporting weapons through other countries to hide the origin of the materials.
According to the report, the US has gathered intelligence indicating that Chinese companies have been in communication with Iranian officials regarding arms sales.
It is unclear whether any weapons have been shipped yet or how many sales have been approved by Chinese officials, and, according to the NYT, US officials briefed on the matter disagree on those specifics.
The anonymous US officials shared that at least one of the countries China was planning to use to hide the origin of the weapons shipments was in Africa.
US officials allegedly do not believe that the Chinese government has formally approved of moves to supply finished weapons to Iran, but they noted that it is unlikely that the government did not know about communications between Iran and Chinese companies.
Goldie Katz contributed to this report.