Sec. 201. Findings; sense of Congress
435 words·~2 min read·
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Congress makes the following findings: Iran has a robust unmanned aerial system program under which Iran operates several unmanned aerial systems, including combat drones, drones capable of conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and suicide or kamikaze drones. As of December 2022, Iran reportedly supplied more than 1,700 unmanned aerial systems to the Russian Federation, including several hundred of the Shahed–136 suicide drone. Iran and the Russian Federation are reportedly planning to build 6,000 Geran–2 drones, the Russian-made version of the Iranian Shahed–136, at a new facility in the Russian Federation.
The Iranian supply of unmanned aerial systems to the Russian Federation has fueled the Russian Federation’s murderous invasion of Ukraine and caused countless civilian deaths. The United States found parts made by more than a dozen United States or western companies in an Iranian unmanned aerial system downed in Ukraine, which are likely transferred to Iran illegally. Iran is also responsible for the proliferation of unmanned aerial systems to terrorist groups in the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, which have all employed drones in their murderous attacks on Israel following the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel, which killed more than 1,400 innocent civilians.
Iran’s transfer of unmanned aerial systems to other governments and terrorist groups has violated Annex B of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231
(2015)and restrictions imposed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which expired on October 18, 2023. Upon the expiration of those restrictions, Iran’s transfer of deadly unmanned aerial systems and ballistic missiles to actors like Hamas and the Russian Federation became legal under international law. It is the sense of Congress that— Iran’s unmanned aerial system program contributes significantly to the instability of the Middle East and threatens the security of the United States and its partners in the Middle East, including Israel; the provision of Iranian unmanned aerial systems gives the Russian Federation an advantage in its war in Ukraine and contributes to the dangerous partnership between Iran and the Russian Federation; the expiration of restrictions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Annex B of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 on October 18, 2023, helps facilitate Iran’s development and transfer of deadly unmanned aerial systems and ballistic missiles to actors like Hamas and the Russian Federation; and the United States should seek to hinder Iran’s unmanned aerial system production, its transfer of such systems to the Russian Federation, Hamas, and other hostile state and non-state actors, and to prevent the further use of United States components in Iranian unmanned aerial systems.