Iran finally admits sending drones to Russia
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Raven Ruma
- . November 5, 2022
- . Update: November 11, 2022 1:02 am
Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday has finally acknowledged for the first time that his country has supplied Russia with drones. But he also insisted that the drone transfer happened before Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian come after months of silence from Iran over the drone transfer while Russia has been sending the drones to war zone slamming into Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian targets.
“We gave a limited number of drones to Russia months before the Ukraine war,” Amirabdollahian told reporters after a meeting in Tehran.
On previous instances, Iran’s officials have denied of having provided drones to Russia for waging war in Ukraine. Iran’s Ambassador to the U.N. Amir Saeid Iravani has last week called the allegations “totally unfounded” and reiterated “Iran’s position of neutrality in the war”.
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While acknowledging the sending of shipment to Russia, Amirabdollahian claimed that Iran was unaware of the fact that the drones would be used in Ukraine. He added that Iran remains committed to bringing the conflict to an end. “If (Ukraine) has any documents in their possession that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should provide them to us,” he said. “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the alliance condemns Iran’s plans of supplying ballistic missiles and drones to Russia. “We see Iran offering drones and considering ballistic missile deliveries to Russia,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Istanbul. “This is unacceptable. No country should provide support to Moscow in this illegal war.”
Kyiv has said that till now around 400 Iranian drones have been used against the country in war waged by Russia. The Ukrainian government has further added that Moscow has ordered about 2000 drones from Tehran in total.
