As US carriers and warships mass in the Gulf and as the next round of Geneva talks are expected by week's end, Tehran appears to be quietly upgrading its ability to threaten maritime chokepoints.
According to Reuters, Iran is in advanced negotiations with Beijing to purchase Chinese-made CM-302 anti-ship cruise missiles - which are supersonic weapons (projectiles which go faster than the speed of sound) designed to skim low over the water and evade naval defenses.
"The deal for the Chinese-made CM-302 missiles is near completion. No delivery date has been agreed," informed sources told the outlet.
"Iran has military and security agreements with its allies, and now is an appropriate time to make use of these agreements," an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said separately, at a moment additional deals with Russia are being reported, including a half-billion Euro agreement for Moscow to send thousands of its advanced shoulder-fired missiles to Tehran.
As for the Chinese CM-302, it has a listed range of roughly 290 kilometers (or 180 miles) and is engineered specifically to penetrate layered ship defenses - which the Iranians would seek as they want to complicate US naval operations in the Persian Gulf and beyond, in the event of a hot conflict.
Talks to acquire the weapons have reportedly been in the works for some two years, but were accelerated in the wake of Israel's US-backed 12-day war against Iran last June.
Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer now with the Institute for National Security Studies, has been cited in international reports describing that the acquisition would be "a complete game-changer if Iran has supersonic capability to attack ships in the area."
"These missiles are very difficult to intercept," he added. "China does not want to see a pro-Western regime in Iran. That would be a threat to their interests. They are hoping that this regime will stay."
While neither China nor Russia would likely come to Iran's direct military aid in the event of attack, the pattern on display would likely be along the lines of these expedited weapons deals.
Washington will be none to happy about this, and could move to expand sanctions and punitive measures on China's defense and 'dual use' industrial sectors.
