Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, according to US and European officials, despite sharp warnings from Washington and its allies not to provide Moscow with those specific weapons for use against targets in Ukraine.
The new missiles are expected to help Russia step up its efforts to destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this past week now includes 4,000 bombs a month across the country.
US and European officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed that Iran had sent several hundred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, after months of warnings about sanctions. Delivery was informed Previously by The Wall Street Journal.
In a statement released Friday by its permanent mission to the United Nations, Iran denied providing the weapons and said its position on the war in Ukraine remained unchanged.
“Iran considers the provision of military aid to parties engaged in the conflict – which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure and distance from ceasefire negotiations – to be inhumane,” the statement said. “Thus, Iran not only refrains from engaging in such actions, but also calls on other countries to stop supplying weapons to parties involved in the conflict.”
The Group of 7 nations warned in March that they would impose coordinated sanctions on Iran if it transferred the missiles, a warning repeated at a NATO summit meeting in Washington in July.
In a statement on Saturday, National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett declined to explicitly confirm the missile transfer but signaled increased cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.
“We have been warning of a deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are wary of these reports,” Mr Savet said. He said the United States and its key allies had previously made it clear they were “ready to deliver significant results.”
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and lead to the killing of more Ukrainian civilians,” he added. “This partnership threatens European security and shows how Iran’s destabilizing influence reaches across the Middle East and around the world.”
But despite the threats and the sour relationship between Washington and Tehran, President Biden has plenty of reasons for restraint.
One is that the Biden administration has been conducting extended diplomacy with Iran for months in an effort to prevent the war in Gaza from escalating into a regional conflict. Through intermediaries, Biden officials are urging Iran not to launch military attacks on Israel or order a major attack by its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
With the American presidential campaign in full swing and President Biden a lame duck, a senior European official said, it was unclear how strong Washington’s response would be.
Mr. Biden has rejected repeated requests from Mr. Zelensky to send long-range missiles to Ukraine that could attack airfields in Russia. From those sites, Russia could attack Ukraine with heavy bombs equipped with fins for glide and GPS packs to ensure accuracy. Ukraine currently does not have missiles with sufficient range to reach those airfields.
Mr. Zelenskiy went to a Ukraine contact group meeting in Ramstein, Germany, on Friday to ask for such weapons, and later in the evening, he repeated his plea at a major conference on Europe in Cernobbio, Italy. In those comments, he called for “air defense to our rescue”. He said Ukraine would not use long-range missiles against civilian targets.
“We want to use it only on military airfields,” he said.
“People are afraid that we will attack the Kremlin,” he added. “It’s a pity we can’t.” But the missiles he requested never reached that far, he said.
The supply of Iranian missiles to Moscow could prompt Mr Biden to approve long-range missiles for Ukraine, officials suggested on Saturday. But the European official noted that Mr. Biden had met Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is wary of pushing too far, fearing escalation of war and direct conflict with NATO.
There is also concern among Western officials not to encircle Iran’s new president, Massoud Pazeshkian. Something in the middle In the ruling establishment of the country.
Elected in July, Mr. Pezheshkian has said he hopes to improve the domestic economy by securing relief from sanctions from Europe and the United States, and that Western officials also hope he will help efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
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