Iran Unveils Drones Armed with Air-to-air Missiles

Minister of Defense, Commander of the Iranian Army, Commander of the Air Force and Commander of Air Defense during the inauguration of the drones in an unknown location last April (AP)
Minister of Defense, Commander of the Iranian Army, Commander of the Air Force and Commander of Air Defense during the inauguration of the drones in an unknown location last April (AP)
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Iran Unveils Drones Armed with Air-to-air Missiles

Minister of Defense, Commander of the Iranian Army, Commander of the Air Force and Commander of Air Defense during the inauguration of the drones in an unknown location last April (AP)
Minister of Defense, Commander of the Iranian Army, Commander of the Air Force and Commander of Air Defense during the inauguration of the drones in an unknown location last April (AP)

Iran said it has reinforced its air defense capabilities by adding combat drones equipped with air-to-air missiles to its arsenal, state media reported on Sunday.

"Dozens of Karrar drones armed with air-to-air missiles have been added for air defense in all border areas of the country," the official IRNA news agency said.

The drones, with an operational range of up to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), were exhibited Sunday morning during a televised ceremony organized at a military academy in Tehran.

"The enemies will now have to rethink their strategies" because the Iranian forces have "become more powerful", IRNA quoted the commander-in-chief of Iran's army, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, as saying.

The Karrar interceptor drone, the first version of which was unveiled in 2010, has been equipped with a "Majid" thermal missile with a range of eight kilometres (five miles) "made entirely in Iran", added the agency.

It "succeeded in its operational tests" during military exercises held in October, Mousavi said.



Medvedev Says Russia Seeks Victory, Not Compromise, in Talks with Ukraine 

Vladimir Medinsky (3rd from L), head of the Russian delegation, delivers a statement to the press after a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
Vladimir Medinsky (3rd from L), head of the Russian delegation, delivers a statement to the press after a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
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Medvedev Says Russia Seeks Victory, Not Compromise, in Talks with Ukraine 

Vladimir Medinsky (3rd from L), head of the Russian delegation, delivers a statement to the press after a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
Vladimir Medinsky (3rd from L), head of the Russian delegation, delivers a statement to the press after a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)

Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that the point of holding peace talks with Ukraine was to ensure a swift and complete Russian victory.

"The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime," the hawkish deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council said on Telegram.

"That's what the Russian Memorandum published yesterday is about."

Medvedev was referring to a set of Russian demands presented to Ukraine at talks in Istanbul on Monday.

They included handing over more territory, becoming a neutral country, accepting limits on the size of the Ukrainian army and holding new parliamentary and presidential elections.

At the talks, which lasted only an hour, the two sides agreed on a new prisoner-of-war swap and an exchange of 12,000 dead soldiers, but not on the ceasefire that Ukraine and its allies are pressing Russia to accept.

Medvedev added, in an apparent response to Ukraine's weekend strikes on Russian strategic bomber bases, that Moscow would take revenge. "Retribution is inevitable," he said.

"Our Army is pushing forward and will continue to advance. Everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be."