The White House said it was closely monitoring the matter but had yet to see any confirmation that the missiles had actually been moved from Iran to Russia.
Washington has yet to confirm the transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia, but negotiations between Tehran and Moscow are ongoing. White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby announced this on Thursday, February 22, in a telephone briefing.
“Iran is providing Russia with a large number of drones, guided bombs and artillery ammunition, which Russia will use in some way to attack Ukraine. In addition, as I warned last month from the White House podium, the Russian negotiations on acquiring short-range ballistic Missiles from Iran are actively promoting,” Kirby said.
He recalled that the previous day, the Reuters agency had published material discussing Iran’s transfer of hundreds of ballistic missiles to the Russian side. According to him, this article is based on the comments of Iranian officials who “bragged that they provided the Russian Federation with missiles that could be used to kill Ukrainian civilians.”
“While we are closely monitoring this, we have not found any confirmation that the missiles were actually transferred from Iran to Russia. But in this publication, the Iranians clearly emphasize that they will send ballistic missiles to the Russian Federation , and we have no reason to believe that they will not comply with this,” he noted.
Kirby emphasized that if Iran were to transfer these weapons to the Russian side, the response of the international community would be “swift and severe.”
“For our part, we will take this issue to the UN Security Council. We will introduce additional sanctions against Iran. And we will coordinate additional retaliatory measures with our allies and partners in Europe and other countries,” the representative of the White House emphasized.
Kirby also said that the United States is preparing sanctions against Iran, which will be announced in the coming days in response to Tehran’s continued support for the Russian Federation.
In addition, Kirby emphasized that the United States is “ready to move forward” if Iran transfers ballistic missiles to Russia, without specifying what is at stake.
Let’s remember the day before Reuters wrote that Iran transferred to Russia about 400 ballistic missiles with a range of up to 700 km. The Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that they had no information about Iran’s transfer of such missiles to Russia.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.