Iran is seething after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted a draft resolution to Ukraine’s parliament proposing sanctions on Iran for the next 50 years. Iran has supplied hundreds of armed kamikaze drones to Russia, which Moscow uses to terrorize Ukrainian civilians. Iran’s state media call Ukraine’s accusations “baseless concerning Iran’s arms supply to Russia.”
Iran is now seeing its actions have consequences, as Ukraine could ban trade and travel with Iranians. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said the Ukrainian president was conducting a “political show” with “worthless” allegations.
Iran blames the West for Zelensky’s actions. “The repetition of false claims by the Ukrainian president against the Islamic Republic is in line with the propaganda and media war of the anti-Iranian axis against Iran’s government and people with the aim of securing as many arms and financial aid as possible from Western countries,” Iran said in a statement on Saturday.
Iran’s pro-regime Fars News has taken up the banner of bashing Zelensky. The regime media launched a 6,000-word broadside bashing the Ukrainian leader. The report says that Ukraine’s accusations are “baseless.” It accuses Zelensky of “traveling around and begging for support and receiving arms aid from the Western parties.” Iran is concerned that Ukraine recently made inroads with the Arab League and G7 at meetings in Saudi Arabia and Japan. Iran believes Ukraine is speaking up just to get Western support.
Iran says it is ready to negotiate, but warns Ukraine against “baselessness and the existence of specific political goals and motives behind such accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Iran says that its authorities “have rejected and emphasized their opposition to the war in Ukraine” and wants dialogue over Russia’s invasion. It claims that Iran’s president and foreign minister have made peace efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, western Japan, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (credit: Louise Delmotte/Pool via REUTERS)Tehran also claims its actions are in line with the UN and EU policies and also with China’s initiatives. “From the very beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly announced that the continuation of the war in Ukraine, in Yemen, or in other areas in the West Asian region is not a solution, but rather complicates the situation.”
Iran sent drones to Russia prior to the war
Iran says it has sent drones to Russia, but this was prior to the war. “This uproar has been started by some Western countries that Iran has provided Russia with missiles and drones to help the war in Ukraine. The missile part is completely wrong and the drone part is correct. We provided Russia with a small number of drones months before the war in Ukraine,” Iran’s foreign minister said.
Iran now says that “we prohibit the export and import of weapons. We do not have, but we have not given any weapons to Russia to use in the Ukraine war. Our position is against the expansion of NATO in the region and against the war in Ukraine.”
The Fars News article details the background of Iran’s declarations on the conflict in Ukraine, including outgoing national security chief Ali Shamkhani’s actions. Iran admits it had military and defense ties with Russia. “Therefore, connecting or trying to connect the defense and military cooperation of Iran and Russia with the issue of war in Ukraine is a deviant political action and it is to create a deviation in the minds of the people of the region and public opinion,” Iran says.
Iran adds that it sold a very limited number of drones to Russia and has not received evidence Moscow used them. It then says that, in the case where Ukraine found a downed Shahed-136 drone, it was Russian and only “similar” to Iran’s drone.
“The Russians clearly said that only Russian-made weapons were used in the Ukraine war. We are unhappy with the continuation of the war against Ukraine and the conflict between the two countries, and we do not consider war as a solution, and we continue our efforts to end the war and to return peace and tranquility to Ukraine and the region,” Tehran said. Further, Iran claims that Russia has said it has its own plans to make drones.
Iran now says its patience is running out. “Zelenskiy should know that Iran’s strategic patience for baseless accusations will not be unlimited. It is better for Mr. Zelensky to learn from the fate of some leaders of countries who were pleased with the support of the United States.”
Iran is focused on what US officials such as William Burns, Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan have said. Iran has also focused on Ukrainian statements, alleging Ukraine has excused attacks on Iran’s Ministry of Defense complex in Isfahan, claiming these “statements and actions are irresponsible and a clear violation of international laws and the principles contained in the charter of the United Nations.
“Once again, we deny any shipment of equipment and weapons, including drones, for use in the Ukrainian war. To resolve the misunderstanding, we held a round of technical and expert discussions with the Ukrainian delegation in Oman. If necessary, we do not see any problem to hold a new round.” Tehran says that while Iran-Ukraine relations had historically been friendly, the “two countries have deteriorated due to the influence of the Ukrainian government’s political approach and political pressure from the western parties.” Iran says this is a two-way street, if Ukraine continues down this path, relations could badly deteriorate.
Now it says it has met with Ukrainian officials in Oman and discussed this issue and that Ukraine has only provided it with “vague” satellite photos to prove that Iranian drones are in Russia. “Moreover, today Europe and the West provided more than 14 billion dollars of weapons to Ukraine, which means prolonging the war and encouraging one of the parties to continue the war and kill.”
Iran is obviously concerned about what western media and officials, including the UK, France and other officials are saying about Iran’s movement of weapons to Russia.
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