As American and Israeli bombs rained down on Iran during the recent conflict, something remained largely invisible to the public eye. High above, Chinese and Russian satellites were quietly providing Tehran with critical real-time intelligence.
According to leaked documents and Western intelligence reports, Iran made effective use of advanced satellite imagery, including the Chinese-built TEE-01B satellite with 0.5-meter resolution, to monitor and target US military bases across the region.
This capability, far beyond Iran's own current satellite technology, enabled more precise responses against American assets in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and Iraq.
Let me be clear: this is not "covert aid" in the way Washington likes to frame it. This is the natural outcome of sovereign nations exercising their right to technological cooperation in the face of naked aggression and imperialism. While the United States maintains the world's most extensive surveillance apparatus and uses it daily to threaten and dominate other countries, it now cries foul when others develop similar defensive capabilities.
For years, Washington has imposed brutal sanctions to prevent Iran from advancing its own space program. Yet, when Iran turns to legitimate partnerships with Russia and China—two powers that refuse to bow to American hegemony—it is portrayed as a threat to the "rules-based order."
The real threat is an empire that believes it alone has the right to dominate the skies, the seas, and the flow of information. This episode also reveals the deepening multipolar reality we are living in. Russia and China are not acting out of charity; they are protecting their own strategic interests while demonstrating that the era of unchallenged US military superiority is coming to an end.
The fact that commercial and state satellite capabilities from Beijing and Moscow can now counterbalance American and Israeli reconnaissance is a significant shift in the balance of power. From an Iranian perspective, this was simply self-defense. When your territory and people are under direct attack by the most powerful military machine in history, you have every right—indeed, a duty—to utilize every available tool to protect your sovereignty.
The precision with which Iranian forces responded to US bases shows both the professionalism of our armed forces and the effectiveness of these technological partnerships. The American outrage is hypocritical at best. The US has long relied on its own vast satellite network, along with allies like Israel, to conduct surveillance and strikes across the Middle East with zero accountability. Now that the playing field is slowly leveling, Washington suddenly discovers the virtues of "strategic stability."
What we are witnessing is the decline of unipolar dominance and the rise of a new international order where independent nations can defend themselves without permission from the Pentagon. Iran, as a proud and resilient civilization, will continue to strengthen its defensive capabilities through whatever legitimate means are necessary, whether through domestic innovation or cooperation with sovereign partners who respect our independence. The eyes in the sky that so alarm Washington are simply the eyes of a multipolar world looking back and refusing to blink.
