Then-Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during the joining ceremony of ballistic missiles to the Armed Forces, in Tehran, Iran, August 22, 2023. (Photo: Iran’s Presidency/WANA/Handout via REUTERS)
The Iranian regime on Wednesday threatened to respond to sanctions imposed by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France in response to Tehran’s transfer of missiles to Russia. Western nations fear these missiles will boost Russia’s military capabilities in the war against Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy emphasized that the growing military cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens Europe’s security.
“This development and the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran’s destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East,” Lammy stated on Wednesday ahead of his official visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally accused the Iranian regime of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia, which are likely to be used against Ukraine.
“Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukrainians,” Blinken warned. He said the Biden administration had privately warned the Iranian government that a transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would constitute “a dramatic escalation.”
However, the Iranian regime denied it had transferred missiles to Russia.
On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani accused the European nations of conducting “economic terrorism” against Iran and threatened a response.
“This action of the three European countries is the continuation of the hostile policy of the West and economic terrorism against the people of Iran, which will face the appropriate and proportionate action of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Kanaani said in an official statement.
Russia has also denied receiving missiles from Iran, calling the allegations “baseless.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western nations have accused Iran of transferring drones to the Russian military. The Iranian regime initially denied the allegations. However, in November 2022, Tehran publicly admitted to transferring the drones to Russia.
At the time, the late Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Western nations were making a “fuss” over the issue that Iran sold Russia a “limited number of drones months before the Ukraine war.”
While Russia is considered a military superpower, it lags behind the Western nations in key technologies like drones and advanced missiles. Russia has used a large number of Iranian drones in its war against Ukraine.
Iran has emerged as a leading developer and mass producer of relatively inexpensive drones, which have increasingly been used against Israel by Iran and its terror proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen in the Middle East.
On the other hand, Iran has become a leading developer and mass producer of relatively inexpensive drones, which have increasingly been used against Israel by Iran’s terror proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Western nations are increasingly concerned by the deepening military ties between Tehran and Moscow. In addition, concerns are mounting in Israel, the U.S., and Europe that Iran is edging closer to developing nuclear weapons.
Former US CENTCOM chief, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, warned that Iran could potentially move toward building a nuclear bomb without a formal decision from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He also highlighted that in the short term, Iran’s expanding cruise missile and drone capabilities pose an even greater threat.
