More evidence emerged that the CRINK alliance (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea) are supplying Iran with arms on March 24, after the Wall Street Journal reported on an Israeli strike on a Caspian sea smuggling route used by Moscow to supply Tehran with military supplies.

Israel hit a naval facility in Iran’s Caspian Sea port of Bandar Anzali and has targeted a military supply route used by Moscow and Tehran to transfer weapons, WSJ reported.

The attack, carried out last week, marked Israel’s first known strike on the Caspian Sea, a strategically important but geographically isolated waterway connecting Russian and Iranian ports roughly 600 miles apart. The route has enabled an exchange of munitions, equipment and commodities including wheat and oil that is beyond the reach of Western naval forces.

“An Israeli strike on a naval outpost in the Caspian Sea targeted Russia’s support for Iran in the war, hitting a supply line that the countries have used to move ammunition, drones and other weaponry, people familiar with the matter said.”

The Israeli military said the strike hit dozens of targets, including warships, a command centre and a shipyard used to maintain vessels. Verified images showed damage to Iran’s naval headquarters and destroyed vessels, although the full extent of the damage remains unclear.

The Caspian corridor has become increasingly important since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to previously reported documents, more than 300,000 artillery shells and around one million rounds of ammunition were shipped from Iran to Russia via the route in 2023.

“The most important goal of this strike was to limit Russian smuggling and show the Iranians that they don’t have sea defences in the Caspian,” Eliezer Marum, a former commander of the Israeli Navy said, as quoted by the WSJ.

Western officials and analysts say cooperation between Moscow and Tehran has expanded to include drone production and intelligence sharing. Iranian-designed Shahed drones, now manufactured in both countries, have been widely used in Ukraine and across the Middle East. While no concrete evidence has emerged that Russia is sharing drone tech with Iran, the Kremlin signed a drone technology transfer agreement with Iran last year and built its own drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan. Since then Russia has invested heavily and upgraded the Iranian design, with the Geran-5 drone being the latest iteration. As both countries share the same technological basis, it seems highly likely they are cooperating.

“I think the drone supply, potentially the grain supply, will have a potentially critical short-term impact on Iran’s situation at this point,” Eric Rudenshiold, a former Central Asia director at the US National Security Council told the WSJ.

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned the strike, warning against further escalation in the Caspian and describing Bandar Anzali as a key civilian trade hub. Analysts said both countries are likely to reroute shipments, limiting the long-term disruption.

Separately, Ukraine's military intelligence has "irrefutable" evidence that Russia continues ​to provide satellite intelligence to Iran that will prolong the war in the Middle East, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his daily video post on March 23.

"Russia is using ​its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence ​capabilities, as well as part of the ⁠data obtained through cooperation with partners in the ​Middle East," he said on X after meeting ​the head of military intelligence.