The US on Tuesday formally accused Iran of providing Russia with ballistic missiles and imposed new sanctions on Russian-flagged ships allegedly involved in the weapons transfers.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new sanctions at a press conference in London with his British counterpart, David Lammy. The US also imposed new sanctions on Iran’s main airline, which will have little impact, if any at all, since it’s already under US sanctions.
For its part, Iran has denied recent reports that said it was sending ballistic missiles to Russia. “The publication of false and misleading reports about the transfer of Iranian weapons to some countries is simply an ugly propaganda to conceal the large illegal arms support of the United States and some Western countries for the genocide in Gaza,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.
“Some Western countries present themselves as defenders of human rights and support the implementation of international conventions and treaties, but send all kinds of weapons to back the war crimes of the Zionist regime,” Kanaani added.
Blinken said that the US had warned Iran that providing missiles to Russia would be a “dramatic escalation.” Throughout the war in Ukraine, the US has poured weapons into the conflict, including a variety of missiles and cluster bombs, which are banned by over 100 countries due to their indiscriminate nature.
In recent years, Russia and Iran have increased military and economic cooperation, a natural response to US and other Western sanctions that have targeted both nations. Sergey Shoigu, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said Tuesday that Russia and Iran were close to signing a new agreement to expand cooperation even more.
“We are ready to expand cooperation between our security councils. We continue keeping an eye on issues of the practical implementation of top-level agreements,” Shoigu said, according to TASS. “We hope to sign a new framework interstate agreement soon and are finishing domestic procedures necessary to prepare documents for signing by the presidents.”
