Iran Again Rejects Allegations of Military Support for Russia in Ukraine War

Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations once again rejected Western officials' statements regarding the Islamic Republic's military support for Russia in the Ukraine war. Amir Saeed Iravani, in a letter to the President of the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday, deemed the statements by representatives of the United States, Britain, and France against Iran as 'unacceptable.' Mr. Iravani emphasized that the Islamic Republic has maintained a neutral stance since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, and this principled position remains unchanged, asserting that Iran has always fulfilled its commitments and continues to adhere to them. Western officials claim that Iranian drones and weapons play a significant role in Russia's attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. The United States also stresses that the use of Iranian-made drones in Russia's war against Ukraine violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Following the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and six world powers (the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany), the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2231 on July 20, 2015, to endorse this agreement. The U.S. and Western countries assert that Russia has received hundreds of Iranian Shahed and Mohajer drones in violation of Resolution 2231, which prohibits all countries from transferring such weapons from Iran without prior approval from the Security Council. In this context, French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call with Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday, urged him not to support Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. Following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has faced the world's most severe punitive sanctions regime. Western countries claim that following these sanctions, Russia has turned to North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran to secure the weapons it needs for the war in Ukraine. Over the more than two years since the beginning of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, Tehran initially denied any sale of weapons, including drones, to Russia but later claimed that it had provided these weapons to Russia before the Ukraine war began.