According to an investigation by the Financial Times based on a leak of secret Iranian military documents, Iran received from China and used a modern spy satellite for surveillance. The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by the Chinese company Earth-i at the end of 2024, provided Tehran with new capabilities to observe American military sites in the Middle East. As part of the deal, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also gained access to the commercial ground stations of the Chinese “Emposat” network, allowing it to control the satellite and receive data.
Special attention was paid to the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, which the satellite photographed on March 13, 14 and 15. It was on March 14 that then-US President Donald Trump confirmed that American aircraft at that base had been attacked. Analysis shows that the satellite images were taken both before and after the series of drone and missile strikes on those targets, indicating their use in planning and assessing the outcomes of the attacks.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, the Iranian satellite tracked military facilities in Jordan, as well as areas near the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and Erbil Airport in Iraq. Surveillance of these sites coincided in time with subsequent attacks that the IRGC claimed responsibility for. At the time of the report’s publication, officials from the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, Chinese authorities and the companies involved had not commented on the matter.
Full version: فايننشال تايمز: إيران استخدمت قمر تجسس صينيا لاستهداف قواعد أمريكية