US to impose sanctions on Iran and Russia despite no proof of UAV sale

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The US State Department said in a statement that it is committed to imposing sanctions to prevent Iran from allegedly delivering "dangerous weaponry" to Russia.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations, Saeed Iravani, told reporters on Wednesday that the accusations against Iran and claims that is provided UAVs to Russia for use in Ukraine are rejected by Tehran and considered unfounded.

"We are committed to working with allies and partners to prevent the transfer of dangerous weaponry to Russia. We will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers," the State Department said.  

Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said that Western allegations concerning the sale of Iranian drones to Russia are only a ploy to increase pressure on both Moscow and Tehran.

Iran and Russia have denied US allegations concerning suspected Iranian military sales to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Tehran requested documents from Kiev documenting and proving Russia's usage of Iranian drones in Ukraine as part of the ongoing war, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

Amir-Abdollahian and Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić-Radman had a phone conversation that saw the two discussing bilateral ties between their countries and Iran's stance on the ongoing war.

"We are strongly against the war and [against] arming each side of the war. We have told the Ukrainian authorities to provide any evidence about the use of alleged Iranian drones in the Ukraine war," the Iranian FM told his Croatian counterpart.

On the other hand, Amir-Abdollahian did not rule out that Tehran had cooperated with Russia in the defense sector for years, but "we did not support the war against Ukraine and we did not provide any of the Iranian weapons to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine."

The US has no evidence

Earlier, in July of this year, the White House declared that the US has no evidence of an Iran-Russia sale of UAV drones. It further noted that no signs of purchase have been observed even weeks after the US claimed that Russia is buying drones from the US.

John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, attempted to minimize the scale of this intelligence media stunt by stating that the White House has not seen any deal “that has been actually affected,” adding, “We’ve seen no indications of any sort of actual delivery and/or purchase of Iranian drones by the Russian Ministry of Defense.” 

Kirby's comments came more than two weeks after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Washington had concrete proof that Iran was getting ready to sell "several hundred" drones to Russia, including "weapons-capable UAVs," and that the deal would be finalized quickly.

The dichotomy created by Kirby and Sullivan seems to reveal that there is confusion on the matter within the US administration.

Read more: US threatens action against alleged Iranian drones Russia used in Kiev