Iran appears to have shot down a Chinese Wing Loong II drone in the southern region of Shiraz, sparking questions among open-source intelligence analysts about whether Gulf states like Saudi Arabia or the UAE had joined offensive operations against Iran.
Images of the destroyed drone were originally shared by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which said the Iranian military had downed an American MQ-9 Reaper drone.
However, multiple open-source intelligence analysts identified the drone as a Chinese Wing Loong II, which is often compared to the MQ-9 Reaper. Middle East Eye could not independently confirm the analysis, but Tehran Times later reported it.
MEE revealed in February that Iran had received drones from China in the days before the US-Israeli attack on 28 February.
But a regional intelligence official said Beijing had sent Kamikaze drones to the Islamic Republic, which are different from reusable Wing Loong drones.
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Nicole Grajewski, the author of Russia and Iran: Partners in Defiance from Syria to Ukraine, said that Iran does not possess the Wing Loong Drone in its arsenal.
Neither the US nor Israel is known to operate Wing Loong II drones, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE have them in their arsenal.
The Wing Loong drone has featured prominently in Sudan’s civil war, where the UAE has deployed them in support of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to The New York Times.
If Saudi Arabia or the UAE were operating the drone, it would signal a step up in their support for the war on Iran, at a time when they are under pressure from the Trump administration to support offensive operations.
MEE was the first to reveal that Saudi Arabia had granted the US expanded access to its airspace and King Fahd military base in western Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom opposed the US-Israeli war on Iran but has since been caught trying to balance between enmeshing itself in the war and appeasing its top security partner, the US. US President Donald Trump said this week that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be “kissing my ass” amid the war.
While Saudi Arabia did not lodge an official protest against the remarks, one western diplomat in Riyadh told MEE that it was believed to deeply anger the kingdom.
The UAE has been more outwardly aggressive towards Iran than Saudi Arabia. The UAE has lobbied the United Nations to authorise the use of force to wrest back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.
