Ukraine (bbabo.net) - The United States has warned it will take action against companies and countries collaborating with Iran's drone program after Russia reportedly used Iranian drones in a sting operation in Ukraine. It is reported by Al-Arabiya on October 18.
“Anyone doing business with Iran, who may have any connection to UAVs, ballistic missile development, or arms shipments from Iran to Russia, should be very careful and exercise due diligence – the US will not hesitate to impose sanctions or take action against the perpetrators.” , State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
“The deepening of Russia’s alliance with Iran is something that the whole world – especially in the region and around the world, frankly – should see as a serious threat,” he said.
Ukrainian officials said UAV strikes in Kyiv killed four people and damaged power lines in hundreds of towns and villages in Ukraine.
Patel said the United States also believes that Iran's supply of UAVs violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231: "We believe that these UAVs that were transferred from Iran to Russia and used by Russia in Ukraine are among the weapons that will remain under the embargo. in accordance with 2231".
Note that the resolution’s ban on Iranian conventional arms exports expired in October 2020, despite efforts at the UN by then-President Donald Trump’s administration, which withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. But the resolution maintains restrictions until October 2023 on the export of ballistic missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons.
Citing previously released U.S. intelligence data, Patel said some of the Iranian drones being sold to Russia were "out of service."
We also note that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters at Stanford University in California that the drone strikes demonstrated the need to give Ukraine "everything possible" as its troops "strengthen their positions" ahead of winter.
It is noteworthy that Iran itself rejects the transfer of drones to Russia. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani insisted today, October 18, that Iran did not send weapons to either side of the conflict. “This news is fabricated and serves the interests of the West,” Kanani said.
“Iran opposes the war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, opposes military solutions to resolve political conflicts, and also opposes the war in Ukraine and seeks to end the military confrontation due to its good relations with the two countries,” the Iranian diplomat said.
The spokesman noted that it is "bitter political irony" that countries that supply billions of dollars of weapons to one side of the war accuse another country of sending weapons to the other side: "If these countries support a political solution to this crisis, how can they justify sending weapons in such large quantities?” said Kanani.
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