Iran denies western ballistic missile claims

The US and its allies are acting “on false intelligence,” Tehran’s foreign minister has said

Iran did not supply Russia with ballistic missiles, despite what the “sanctions addicts” in the West claim, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said. On Tuesday, the US and its allies sanctioned Iran’s national airline over alleged missile shipments to Moscow.

The US announced the measures against Iran Air and a number of Iranian and Russian shipping companies after Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the entities of transporting Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. The UK, France, and Germany followed suit by canceling bilateral agreements allowing Iran Air to enter their airspace, and by sanctioning Russian and Iranian companies, vessels, and individuals allegedly involved in the missile trade.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Araghchi said that the US and its allies were acting “on false intelligence and false logic.”

“Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period,” he wrote. “Sanction addicts should ask themselves: how is Iran able to make and supposedly sell sophisticated arms?”

“Sanctions are not the solution but part of the problem,” he concluded.

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US to sanction Iran over alleged missile shipments

The US has imposed sanctions on Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, with Washington’s economic blacklist now including around 5,000 Iranian individuals and entities. These sanctions, eclipsed only by those imposed on Russia, have not prevented Iran from developing a thriving domestic weapons industry.

The Fath-360, which has a range of around 120km and can be fired from a wheeled launcher similar to the American HIMARS system, was unveiled at a military exhibition in April 2022.

Aragachi is not the first Iranian official to deny supplying the missiles to Russia. “No missile was sent to Russia and this claim is a kind of psychological warfare,” senior military commander Fazlollah Nozari told Iranian media on Monday. “We strongly reject the claims of Iran’s role in exporting arms to one side of the war,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters later that day, referring to the Ukraine conflict. “Iran’s accusers are the ones who are among the biggest arms exporters to one side of the war,” he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny the accusations outright. “We have seen this report; it is not every time that this kind of information is true,” he told RIA Novosti on Monday.  “Iran is our important partner, we are developing our trade and economic relations… including the most sensitive areas. And we will continue to do this in the interests of the peoples of our two countries,” he added.