The White House claims that Iran supplies Russia mainly with unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as artillery shells and ammunition for tanksWASHINGTON, May 15.
/tass/. The United States administration will impose additional sanctions in the coming days against those involved in military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran. This was announced on Monday at a regular online briefing for journalists by John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council.
"We will also continue to impose costs on entities involved in the transfer of Iranian military equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine. <...> In the coming days we will announce the introduction of additional restrictions on those involved in the growing military-trade relations between Russia and Iran," he said.
According to Kirby, Iran supplies Russia mainly with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as artillery shells and ammunition for tanks. So, the White House representative claimed that the Russian Federation received more than 400 UAVs, mainly kamikaze drones of the Shahed type. At the same time, he claimed that Moscow is consulting with Tehran on the purchase of more modern versions of drones. Kirby added that Iran allegedly wants to buy attack helicopters, radars, Yak-130 combat training aircraft and other military equipment worth billions of dollars from the Russian Federation. Russia, he claims, "offers Iran unprecedented cooperation in the field of defense, which affects the production of missiles and electronics."
"The partnership between Russia and Iran directly contributes to Iran's destabilizing activities in the Middle East, posing a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to Iran's neighbors. This full-scale defense partnership is detrimental to both Ukraine and the Middle East," he believes.
Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly rejected versions about the supply of Iranian drones to Russia for their use in Ukraine. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov called such messages stuffing and stressed that the Russian army uses aircraft of domestic production. In November 2022, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that the republic had supplied drones to Russia, but in small quantities and a few months before the start of a special military operation in Ukraine.
