TEHRAN: Iran said Sunday it will control “from day one” a satellite due to be launched by Russia within days, rejecting reports that it will intially serve Moscow in its war in Ukraine.

The Iranian remote sensing satellite, named Khayyam, is due to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Russia’s State Space Corporation said earlier this week.

“All orders related to the control and operation of this satellite will be carried out and issued from day one and immediately after launch by Iranian experts based in Iran’s... space bases,” the Iranian Space Agency said in a statement.

The Washington Post on Thursday reported that Russia “plans to use the satellite for several months or longer” to assist its war efforts in Ukraine before allowing Iran to take control of it, according to anonymous Western intelligence officials.

They added that the satellite will provide Tehran with “unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of sensitive facilities in Israel” and in the Gulf. But Moscow would first use the satellite to “enhance its surveillance of military targets” in the Ukraine conflict, the report said. The Iranian space agency dismissed the claims as “untrue”, adding that “no third country is able to access the information” sent by the satellite due to its “encrypted algorithm”.