Iran acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that it had supplied drones to Moscow, but said they were deployed before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to attack power plants and civilian infrastructure.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said a “small number” of drones were supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.
In Iran’s most detailed response to date on drones, Amirabdollahian denied that Tehran continued to supply drones to Moscow.
“This noise made by some Western countries that Iran has supplied missiles and drones to Russia to help with the war in Ukraine — the missile part is completely wrong,” he told the official IRNA news agency.
“The drone part is true and we provided Russia with a small number of drones months before the war in Ukraine,” he said.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported an increase in drone attacks on civilian infrastructure, mainly targeting power plants and dams, using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. Russia denies that its forces used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Last month, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Iran had promised to supply Russia with surface-to-ground missiles, in addition to more drones.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Amirabdollahian as saying that Tehran and Kiev agreed to discuss allegations about Iranian drone use in Ukraine two weeks ago, but the Ukrainians did not show up at the agreed meeting.
“We agreed with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister to provide us with the documents they have that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine,” Amirabdollahian said, but the Ukrainian delegation backed out of the planned meeting at the last minute.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
The Iranian foreign minister repeated that Tehran “would not be indifferent” if it was proved that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine.
The European Union last month agreed to new sanctions on Iran for its drone deliveries to Russia, and the UK has imposed sanctions on three Iranian military personnel and a defense manufacturer for providing Russia with drones to attack civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
