On November 5, Iran’s Foreign Minister officially confirmed for the first time that his nation had provided Russia with drones. He insisted that the transfer took place prior to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, during which Iranian-made drones were used to dive-bomb Kiev.
The remarks by Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Iran, follow months of conflicting information from Iran over the transfer of weapons, as Russia sends drones slamming into Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian targets.
However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has made oblique claims that it has given drones to the world’s most powerful nations. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has praised the drones’ effectiveness and ridiculed Western concerns about their risk. Crowds carried signs depicting the triangle-shaped drones as a source of national pride during state-sponsored protests on Friday to commemorate the 1979 U.S. Embassy seizure.
Mr. Amirabdollahian asserted on Saturday that Iran was unaware of the usage of its drones in Ukraine even as he acknowledged the sale. He declared that Iran was still committed to ending the crisis.
“If [Ukraine] has any documents in their possession that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should provide them to us,” he said. “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”