Based on reports from early March 2026, U.S. officials believe Russia has begun secretly sharing intelligence with Iran to assist in targeting U.S. forces in the Middle East, while the U.S. continues to openly support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
Russia-Iran Intelligence Sharing (March 2026)
Targeting Assistance: U.S. officials stated that Russia is sharing real-time, classified location data on U.S. military ships, aircraft, and radar systems in the Middle East with Iran.
Purpose: This intelligence is believed to be used by Tehran to guide drone and missile attacks against U.S. forces and, in some cases, Israeli targets, escalating the conflict that began in late February 2026.
Context: The support is seen as a "payback" for U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
Method and Reason: This intelligence is passed secretly to Iran to help them track U.S. assets after their own capabilities were degraded by joint U.S.-Israel strikes.
U.S. Intelligence Sharing with Ukraine
Ongoing Support: The United States has consistently provided intelligence on Russian positions to Ukraine to improve Kyiv's targeting capabilities.
Open Cooperation: In contrast to the secret nature of the Russia-Iran exchange, the U.S. has openly backed Ukraine with military equipment and intelligence, with President Zelensky publicly acknowledging the assistance.
Scope: This support includes intelligence sharing that has allowed Ukraine to strike Russian forces, including high-ranking officials and logistics, and more recently, providing air defense support against Iranian-made drones used by Russia.
This is reported in American press:
“Russia is sharing with Iran information about the locations of U.S. military forces in the Middle East that Tehran could be using to help guide its missile attacks in the region, according to U.S. officials and a former Russian intelligence officer.
It is the strongest indication yet of cooperation between the two nations during the Iran conflict.
The classified U.S. intelligence finding doesn't show that Russia is sharing locations with Iran explicitly for targeting purposes, but that would be a reasonable conclusion for why Russia is doing it, one of the U.S. officials said.
The types of information being shared include the coordinates of U.S. military ships and aircraft, they said.
The former Russian intelligence officer, who had been briefed on the topic, said Moscow was only giving a limited amount of intelligence information derived from its satellites to Tehran. Iran lacks a sizable fleet of its own satellites, so even minimal help could be filling a significant intelligence shortfall.
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn't respond to a request for comment. News of Russia providing location information to Iran was earlier reported by the Washington Post.
Iran has attempted to strike at U.S. forces around the Gulf region since the U.S. and Israeli military campaign began this past week.
While many of its missiles have been intercepted, Iran has hit several U.S. installations, including the embassy in Riyadh and a troop base in Kuwait, as well as targets in Israel.
With a majority of Russia's forces tied up in Ukraine, Moscow is unable to provide direct military aid to Iran. President Vladimir Putin has also been very cautious about angering President Trump while the White House has dangled the prospect of normalizing relations with Moscow if it can reach a peace deal with Ukraine.
Moscow has said it planned to stay out of the Iran conflict. "It's not our war," said Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Regime change in Iran would deprive Russia of its closest partner in the Middle East.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in an interview with "60 Minutes" scheduled to air Sunday, didn't directly confirm Russia was sharing targeting information with Iran, but said, "We're tracking everything," according to an excerpt shared on social media. "Our commanders are aware of everything. No one's putting us in danger."” [1]
1. World News: Russia Secretly Shares Locations of U.S. Forces With Tehran. Volz, Dustin; Grove, Thomas. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 Mar 2026: A10.
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