Iran and Russia find common ground through Syrian and Ukraine wars

Tehran's supply of drones to Moscow deepens a collaboration between two unlikely allies

When a Russian plane arrived in Iran with 140m in cash and a booty of captured western weapons, an exchange for Iranian drones, it marked a new phase in a seven-year alliance between two unlikely bedfellows.

The delivery of cash and weapons was reportedly made in August, after Russia received its first deliveries of drones to support its war in Ukraine. It was Iran's first known contribution to the Russian offensive in Europe. But the bond between the two countries had been forged on another continent ravaged by war, the Middle East.