Representative photo
New York/Washington: After its statement that it was monitoring growing Iran-Russia proximity in Ukraine, the United States along with its allies – the United Kingdom and France – have raised the issue of Iran’s transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia at a meeting of the UN Security Council, where Council members received expert briefings from the UN Secretariat on reports of the transfer of these weapons.
“We expressed our grave concerns about Russia’s acquisition of these UAVs from Iran in violation of UN Security Council resolution 2231,” Ned Price, US State Department Spokesperson, told reporters in Washington on October 19, 2022 (local time).
It may be mentioned that the United States began warning in July 2022 that Iran was planning to transfer UAVs to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine. “We now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure,” Price said.
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The US blamed Iran for continuing to lie and denying providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. Price said the US was 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. We will also continue to surge unprecedented security assistance to Ukraine, including air defence capabilities so that Ukraine can defend itself from these weapons,” he said.
The US referred to UN Security Council resolutions, “some of them are sanctions, some of them are other actions”, and said at every turn it had not hesitated to use these actions.
It may be mentioned that Iranian drones were used by Iranian proxies in Yemen, Syria, and in Ethiopia.
On the specifics of the UAVs, the USA has claimed it would have been a violation back then when they were used in Yemen, Ethiopia and Syria. It holds the view that in all of these cases, whether they are being transferred to the Houthis or the Russians, it would be a violation regardless.
– global bihari bureau
