The US State Department agrees with UK and French assessments that Iran's supply of drones to Russia would violate the UN Security Council resolution that approved the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. This was stated by the representative of the US State Department, Vedant Patel, Reuters reports.
"Our French and British allies have publicly expressed the opinion that Iran's supply of these UAVs (for - ed.) to Russia is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. We agree with that," Patel said.
Resolution 2231 approved a deal between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States that limited Tehran's uranium enrichment activities, making it harder for Iran to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Since around mid-September, Russia has been carrying out attacks in Ukraine using kamikaze drones, which the Ukrainian military says are Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, which the Russian occupiers label as Geran-2. On September 23, the Mohajer-6 multi-purpose strike drone of Iranian production was shot down for the first time.
In particular, on the morning of October 17, Russian troops launched 28 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones over Kyiv, only five hit. According to the latest data, four people died, among them a young couple who were expecting a child.
Due to Iran's supply of weapons to Russia for waging war, the Ukrainian side decided to revoke the accreditation of Iran's ambassador to Ukraine and significantly reduce the number of diplomatic staff at the embassy in Kyiv.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, then appealed to the Council of the EU at the level of foreign ministers with a call to introduce sanctions against Iran for supplying Russia with weapons.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has officially indicated that providing weapons for waging a war of aggression in Ukraine and killing Ukrainian citizens makes Iran complicit in Russian war crimes.