Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the Islamic republic is a law-abiding country of peace and coexistence that would never illegally supply military drones to Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine, denouncing United Nations Security Council calls for an investigation into such claims as “baseless.”
Iran also accused un-named European nations of prolonging the conflict by sending billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine and “enflaming the fire of war” by intervening on the side of Kyiv instead of letting the two combatants resolve their differences away from the battlefield.
The European Council and the British government announced sanctions on Iran last week for allowing the Russian military to use Iranian Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in its war against Ukraine.
Russian forces launched 40 missiles and 16 of Iran’s Shahed-136 drones at Ukrainian infrastructure on Saturday, however a claim of innocence was quickly issued by Tehran.
Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against Iran allegedly supplying drones to Russia. They gathered after a Russian drone strike which local authorities consider to be Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Shahed-136 in Kyiv. At least four people died due to a drone attack on a residential building in central Kyiv. (Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)
“We reject groundless claims that drones were supplied [by Iran] to be used in the Ukraine war,” Nasser Kanani, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, said in a statement on Saturday.
“We have always stressed that all U.N. members should fully abide by the objectives and principles of the U.N. Charter and international law, namely the independence and territorial integrity of countries. We support peace and an immediate end to the war in Ukraine through a political process.”
Breitbart News reported the White House last Thursday accused Iran of sending troops to assist the Russian invasion of Ukraine, by teaching the Russians how to pilot drones they purchased from Tehran.
Rescue workers inspect a building destroyed by Russian drone strikes as they continue their field work following the wave of Russia’s attacks in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine on October 18, 2022. (Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Today we can confirm that Russian military personnel that are based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs, using them to conduct strikes across Ukraine, including strikes against Kyiv in just recent days,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference on Thursday.
“We assess that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations. Russia has received dozens of UAVs so far and will likely continue to receive additional shipments in the future,” Kirby said.
Kirby complained that Iranian and Russian officials “continue to lie” about the involvement of Iranian drones and personnel in the invasion of Ukraine.
He pointed to months of U.S. and allied intelligence warnings about Russia purchasing Iranian drones to replenish its own depleted stock of relatively ineffective UAVs. He predicted the drones provided by Iran would not be enough to “change the course of the war.”
“We’ve said this for months, that Russia had plans to turn to Iran for support. And this is another sign of just how brutal Mr. Putin is willing to be and just how isolated both he and Iran are from the rest of the world,” he charged.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian spoke with the E.U.’s foreign police chief Josep Borrell in a television conversation on Thursday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.
Amirabdollahian told Borrell that Iran has a defense cooperation with Russia but respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity and wants and end to the war and peace to return to Europe.
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