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Iran’s foreign minister acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Iran had supplied the drones to Russia, insisting the transfer took place before Moscow went to war. Ukraine This has seen Iranian-made drones dive-bomb Kyiv.
The remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabudolashian come after months of mixed messages from Iran over the arms shipment, as Russia sent drones to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and civilian targets.
“We provided Russia with a limited number of drones in the months before the war in Ukraine,” Amira Budorashian told reporters after a meeting in Tehran. Iranian officials have previously denied supplying arms to Russia in the war against Ukraine.
Just earlier this week, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, called the allegations “completely baseless” and reiterated Iran’s neutrality in the war. The United States and its Western allies at the Security Council have called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate whether Russia used Iranian drones to target Ukrainian civilians.
Even so, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps has vaguely boasted about delivering drones to the world’s top power. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the efficacy of drones and mocked Western concerns about their dangers.
Crowds waved placards of triangular drones as a gesture of national pride at a state-backed demonstration on Friday to commemorate the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy. When he acknowledged the shipment, Amirabdollahian claimed on Saturday that Iran had not noticed the use of its drones in Ukraine.
He said Iran remained committed to stopping the conflict. “If (Ukraine) has any documents showing that Russia is using Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should provide it to us,” he said. “If it were shown to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we would not remain indifferent to the issue.”
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