Syed Zafar Mehdi
15 July 2022•Update: 15 July 2022
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran on Friday dismissed baseless US claims about sending drones to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine.
This came in a phone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Amir-Abdollahian said the claims made by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during President Joe Biden's Middle East tour had a "specific political goal.”
White House on Monday said it believes Iran is preparing to supply Russia with "hundreds" of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including weapons-capable drones, to use in its war in Ukraine, which is now into its fifth month.
Sullivan, who is accompanying Biden on his maiden regional tour to Israel and Saudi Arabia, on Monday said it was not clear whether Iran had already sent any of its unmanned systems to Russia but said the US has "information" suggesting that it is preparing to train Russian forces to use them.
On Wednesday, Sullivan said while en route to Tel Aviv that Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to deepen ties with Iran represented a "profound threat.”
Putin is expected to visit Tehran next week, where he will be holding bilateral talks with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi as well as tripartite talks with Iran and Türkiye.
Amir-Abdollahian, in a bid to allay the concerns of Kyiv, said Iran's "principled and clear position" in opposing the war in Ukraine is "not like the dual approach taken by some Western countries.”
He said Tehran "continues its efforts to end the war and the political crisis" in the former Soviet republic.
Kuleba, for his part, said he "valued" continued communication between the two countries "even in the difficult days of war,” said the Instagram post of Iran's foreign minister.
On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani accused Sullivan of "distorting the truth" while "unconditionally supporting the world's most murderous regime,” in reference to Israel.
Iran, a close ally of Russia, has stopped short of condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine, blaming it on the NATO alliance, and maintaining that it is opposed to it.
