Iran Seeks 3 More Khayyam Satellites

An Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasts off from Kazakhstan on August 9, 2022 Handout Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP/File
An Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasts off from Kazakhstan on August 9, 2022 Handout Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP/File
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Iran Seeks 3 More Khayyam Satellites

An Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasts off from Kazakhstan on August 9, 2022 Handout Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP/File
An Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasts off from Kazakhstan on August 9, 2022 Handout Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP/File

Iran plans to commission three more versions of a satellite launched this week by Russia, Tehran's government spokesman said Friday.

The Khayyam blasted into orbit on Tuesday, prompting US accusations that it is intended for spying, which Iran denied.

"The construction of three other Khayyam satellites with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the government's agenda," its spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said on Twitter.

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket sent the satellite into orbit from the Moscow-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Responding to the launch, Washington said Russia's growing cooperation with Iran should be viewed as a "profound threat", but the head of Iran's Space Agency, Hassan Salarieh, said the Khayyam is designed to meet Iran's needs for "crisis and urban management, natural resources, mines, agriculture and so on."

The Khayyam was built by the Russians under Iran's supervision, Salarieh said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Ahead of the launch, The Washington Post quoted anonymous Western intelligence officials as saying that Russia "plans to use the satellite for several months or longer" to assist its war effort before allowing Iran to take control.

Iran's space agency stressed on Sunday that it would control the satellite "from day one", in an apparent reaction to the Post's report.

The United States has accused Iran of effectively supporting Russia's war against Ukraine while adopting a "veil of neutrality".

Western governments also worry that satellite launch systems incorporate technologies interchangeable with those used in ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, something Iran has always denied wanting to build.



Putin Declares Unilateral Easter Ceasefire in Ukraine

A couple looks at Independence Square in Kyiv during a warm spring day on April 19, 2025 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
A couple looks at Independence Square in Kyiv during a warm spring day on April 19, 2025 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
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Putin Declares Unilateral Easter Ceasefire in Ukraine

A couple looks at Independence Square in Kyiv during a warm spring day on April 19, 2025 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
A couple looks at Independence Square in Kyiv during a warm spring day on April 19, 2025 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral 30-hour Easter ceasefire in Ukraine on Saturday, after Washington said it could abandon peace talks within days unless the Moscow and Kyiv show they are ready to stop the war.
Putin ordered fighting to stop as of 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday night.
"Based on humanitarian considerations ... the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period," Putin told Valery Gerasimov, Chief of Russia's General Staff, at a meeting televised on Saturday.
"We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions," Putin added.
But shortly after the announcement, around an hour before it was due to take effect, air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the proposal as "yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives". As of 45 minutes before the truce was meant to start, Ukrainian planes were repelling Russian air strikes, Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
"Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin's true attitude toward Easter and toward human life," he said, referring to Iranian-made attack drones used widely by Russia in the war to attack Ukrainian cities far from the front.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had been instructed about the ceasefire and would adhere to it, provided it was "mutually respected" by Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said on Friday the United States would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there were clear signs of progress soon.

Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy for Putin who travelled to Washington this month, posted news of the ceasefire on X, adding: "One step closer to peace" and an emoji of a dove.
Trump has vowed to bring a swift end to the war, while shifting US policy from firmly supporting Kyiv towards accepting Moscow's account of the conflict.
Last month, Ukraine accepted a proposal from Trump for a 30-day truce which Moscow rejected; the sides agreed only to limited pauses of attacks on energy targets and at sea, which both accuse the other of breaking.
Putin's announcement comes a week after a Russian missile attack killed 35 people and wounded nearly 120 in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, including Christians heading to celebrate Palm Sunday. That attack, the deadliest against civilians of the year so far, spurred Kyiv and its European allies to press Washington to take a tougher line towards Moscow.
Putin has proclaimed unilateral pauses in fighting in the past with little impact on the battlefield, including a 36-hour proposed truce for Orthodox Christmas in January, 2023, which Kyiv rejected.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that some progress on a peace settlement had already been made but that contacts with Washington were difficult.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides, displaced millions of Ukrainian civilians and reduced frontline Ukrainian cities to rubble.
Putin has said repeatedly that he wants an end to the war, but had not retreated from his initial demands that Kyiv cede all territory he claims to have annexed and be permanently barred from joining a defense alliance with the West.
Kyiv says those terms would be tantamount to surrender and leave it undefended from future Russian attacks.
Putin told Gerasimov on Saturday that Russia welcomed efforts from the US, China and BRICS countries to find a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
Separately, Russia and Ukraine both confirmed a swap of prisoners of war on Saturday, mediated by the UAE. Each released 246 prisoners, while a further 31 wounded Ukrainians were transferred in exchange for 15 injured Russian soldiers, the Russian defense ministry said.