Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a procurement network based in the United Arab Emirates to buy advanced Chinese satellite equipment linked to its drone program, according to documents uncovered by the British newspaper Financial Times.
The affair is particularly sensitive because it shows that the Gulf state hosted a company that supplied communications equipment to the same branch of the Revolutionary Guards that fired missiles at the United Arab Emirates during the Iran War. According to the allegations, the satellite data was used to repair and guide Iranian drones toward Gulf states.
Leaked commercial contracts and shipping documents from the United Arab Emirates show how the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force acquired the military-grade Chinese satellite communications technology in late 2025 through a UAE-based company.
Despite Abu Dhabi's hawkish stance toward the Islamic Republic before the war, the United Arab Emirates has traditionally served as a hub for Iranian businesses operating abroad. After becoming the region's dominant trade center over the past two decades, the various emirates of the UAE established free zones where trade oversight is less effective, analysts say, raising concerns that they could be exploited for illicit trade and sanctions evasion.
The equipment for the Guards was transferred through Telesun, a company located in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. The company arranged the shipment of around 1.8 tons of Chinese-made satellite antenna equipment from Shanghai to Iran via Dubai's Jebel Ali container port.
A Financial Times analysis of satellite images and shipping location data found that an Iranian vessel used for the final leg of the shipment in November broadcast false navigation information to other ships in an effort to conceal the fact that it had ever traveled to Iran. Together, the documents and shipping analysis reveal how the Revolutionary Guards continued to rely on commercial networks in the United Arab Emirates to acquire strategically sensitive communications technology even after Western sanctions targeted their military procurement apparatus.
