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
Key Points
- Western powers have slapped fresh sanctions on Iran for allegedly supplying Russia with weapons.
- Iran has been accused of providing Russia with weapons multiple times since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022.
- In 2023, an Iranian minister said Iran had provided Russia with a “small number” of drones before Russia’s invasion.
Western powers this week announced fresh sanctions on Iran for allegedly supplying Russia with short-range missiles for use in its war against Ukraine.
The United Kingdom, France, and Germany said they would cut aviation agreements with the Islamic Republic and sanction its national carrier, Iran Air, claiming Tehran had repeatedly defied warnings about the weapons transfers.
The UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, James Kariuki, told a UN Security Council meeting that Iranian close-range ballistic missiles will soon reach European soil.
“The transfer poses a direct threat to European security and stability elsewhere and will increase the suffering of the Ukrainian people,” he said.
In early September, at least 50 people were killed and over 270 injured after — one of the single deadliest strikes on Ukraine since Russia’s invasion started in 2022.
This week, the United States also sanctioned Iran Air and 10 individuals and companies that it said were involved in “operating or having operated in the transportation sector of the Russian Federation economy”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Iranian missiles could be used against Ukraine “within weeks”.
Dozens of Russian military personnel have trained in Iran using the Fath-360 missile, which has a range of 120, said Blinken, who will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday in a solidarity trip with his UK counterpart as Ukrainian forces face Russian advances in the east.
Moscow has stepped up its aerial attacks in recent weeks but is also trying to fight off , which has reshaped the course of the two-and-a-half-year war.
‘False and misleading’
The imposition of Western sanctions over the alleged missile shipments was dismissed In Iran, where foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the Western claims were false and a distraction from US backing for
“Spreading false and misleading news about the transfer of Iranian weapons to some countries is just an ugly propaganda and lie with the aim of concealing the dimensions of the massive illegal arms support of the United States and some Western countries for the genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Iran has summoned four European ambassadors Thursday after they imposed new sanctions over its alleged supply of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine, which Tehran denies.
The British, Dutch, French and German envoys “were summoned by the ministry of foreign affairs following sanctions and unconstructive remarks by European parties”, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not “threats and pressure”, IRNA reported more recently.
“Iran continues on its own path with strength, although we have always been open to talks to resolve disputes … but dialogue should be based on mutual respect, not on threats and pressure,” Araqchi said.
Meanwhile, Russian President that letting Ukraine use Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike Russian targets would put the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “at war” with Russia.
One of the central pillars of NATO is a pledge that an attack on any member state — now including 30 European nations, the US and Canada — shall be considered an attack on the entire alliance.
Anonymous US and UK sources recently told Reuters that Iran’s delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia had sped up talks on Ukraine’s long-range missile use.
Western sanctions follow earlier reports of missile, drone shipments
It’s not the first time that Iran has been accused of providing Russia with weapons.
The US that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran for its war in Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder said at the time that the move amounted to a substantial escalation in the conflict.
“This is a deeply concerning development as this partnership between Iran and Russia threatens European security and illustrates how Iran’s destabilising influence reaches beyond the Middle East and around the world,” he said.
In February, Reuters reported that Iran had provided Russia with around 400 powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.
The shipments began in early January after a deal was finalised in meetings late last year between Iranian and Russian military and security officials that took place in Tehran and Moscow, one of the news wire’s Iranian sources said.
Another anonymous Iranian military official said there had been at least four shipments of missiles and there would be more in the coming weeks, although he declined to provide further details.
“There will be more shipments,” the second Iranian official said. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to.”
Iran’s defence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards — an elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programme — declined to comment. Russia’s defence ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Those who accuse Iran of providing weapons to one of the sides in the Ukraine war are doing so for political purposes,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said when asked about Tehran’s delivery of drones to Russia at the time.
“We have not given any drones to take part in that war.”
However, in November 2023, then-Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian acknowledged that Iran
Amirabdollahian — — denied at the time that Tehran was continuing to supply drones to Russia.
“This fuss made by some Western countries that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help the war in Ukraine — the missile part is completely wrong,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Ukraine claims widespread use of Iranian ‘suicide drones’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Iran of lying about sending a “small number” of drones, saying Ukraine’s forces were downing at least 10 of the unmanned aerial vehicles every day.
Ukraine’s air force said in December 2023 that Russia had launched 3,700 Shahed drones during the war, which can fly hundreds of kilometres and explode on impact — and have been used to target power stations and civilian infrastructure
Ukraine has accused Iran of supplying such drones since early in the war.
Following a spate of Russian drone attacks in October 2022, Zelenskyy
In the immediate aftermath, Iran denied supplying the drones to Russia, and Russia also didn’t comment on whether Iran had supplied it with the aircraft.
Ukraine’s military downed 23 allegedly Iranian-provided Shahed drones, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 28 October 2022, the date he released this photo of himself standing next to a downed drone. Credit: Office of Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Kyiv has repeatedly asked Tehran to stop supplying Shahed drones to Russia, which have become a staple of Moscow’s long-range assaults on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, alongside an array of missiles.
Also in October 2022, the helping Russian forces conduct drone attacks.
“Tehran is now directly engaged on the ground, and through the provision of weapons that are impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the time.
There was no immediate public reaction to the US allegations from Tehran at the time. Russia’s defence and foreign ministries also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Are sanctions bringing Russia and Iran closer?
Following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is now subject to more than 5,000 targeted sanctions. By late 2023, it had .
These sanctions limit Russian financial institutions’ access to international markets and also specifically target officials in Putin’s government and Russian oligarchs with and businesses.
These sanctions range from travel restrictions to export and import bans on certain goods to and from Russia.
Iran has had a variety of Western sanctions imposed on it for decades, some of which also target specific individuals and businesses.
For instance, in December 2022, on three Iranian generals and aerospace company Shahed Aviation Industries — reportedly responsible for the design, development and supply of drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
However, the sanctions imposed by Western nations might be drawing countries like Iran and Russia closer together.
Iran and Russia’s deepening political, economic, and military ties over the past several years have been seen by both sides as “necessary … due to the restrictive effects” of Western sanctions, a February report for the Australian Institute of International Affairs read.
“Militarily, sanctions have facilitated closer cooperation between Iran and Russia, contrary to US, NATO, and allied interests,” author Ian Dudgeon argued.