Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite in late 2024 that has allowed it to target US military bases across the Middle East during the current war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, an account Beijing dismissed as untrue.
The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth Eye Co, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force after it was launched into space from China, the report said, citing leaked Iranian military documents.
Iranian military commanders directed the satellite to monitor major US military sites, the newspaper said, citing time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery and orbital analysis. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those locations, the Financial Times said.
As part of the deal, the IRGC received access to commercial ground stations operated by Emposat, a Beijing-based provider of satellite control and data services with a network extending across Asia, Latin America and other regions, according to the report.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday denied the report, calling it untrue. "Recently, some forces have been keen on fabricating rumors and maliciously associating them to China," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
"China firmly opposes this kind of practice driven by ulterior motives," read the statement.
Reuters could not verify the report.
The White House, CIA and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Earth Eye Co and Emposat also did not immediately respond to Reuters queries.
The report said the White House did not comment on the relationship between Emposat and the IRGC, but a spokesperson referred to comments US President Donald Trump made at the weekend when he warned that China would face "big problems" if it provided Iran with air defence systems.
When asked about the matter, the Chinese embassy in Washington told the newspaper: "We firmly oppose relevant parties spreading speculative and insinuative disinformation against China."
The satellite captured images of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 13, 14 and 15, the report said. On March 14, Trump confirmed US planes at the base had been hit.
According to the report, the satellite also monitored the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan and locations close to the US Fifth Fleet naval base in Manama, Bahrain, and Erbil airport, Iraq, around the time of IRGC-claimed attacks on facilities in those areas.
(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Sonali Paul, Neil Fullick, Edwina Gibbs and Keith Weir)
