London — Washington announced new sanctions on Iran Tuesday over its supply of missiles to Russia for use in Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it was “taking action today to constrain further Iran’s destabilizing activities, including its transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, a serious escalation in its support for Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
The statement added that the expanding military partnership between Iran and Russia “threatens European security and illustrates how Iran’s destabilizing influence reaches beyond the Middle East to undermine security around the world.”
The new measures target individuals and businesses based in Iran and Russia. The sanctions also identify several vessels involved in the delivery of weapons. Among the companies targeted is Iran Air, the country’s flagship airline.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the measures at a news conference Tuesday in London, alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, ahead of their joint visit to Kyiv later this week.
“To wage this war of aggression on Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is also relying increasingly on help from Iran and the DPRK [North Korea] — in these instances, to get actual weapons, in clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Blinken said.
“The growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran’s destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East. For its part, Russia is sharing technology that Iran seeks,” Blinken told reporters. “This is a two-way street, including on nuclear issues, as well as some space information.”
Blinken also singled out China. “One of the reasons that Putin is able to continue this aggression, is because of the provision of support from the People’s Republic of China, the biggest supplier of machine tools, the biggest supplier of microelectronics, all of which are helping Russia sustain its defense industrial base.”
Moscow confirmed Monday that Russia and Iran are cooperating in the “most sensitive” areas without specifically identifying ballistic missiles.
“Iran is our important partner,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a phone call. “We are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive ones.”
Blinken and Lammy said it was a “critical moment” to support Ukraine, although they did not go into detail about additional Western military aid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely push for the Western allies to allow Kyiv to use their long-range missiles on targets inside Russia when Blinken and Lammy visit Kyiv this week, said analyst Garret Martin, co-director of the Transatlantic Policy Center at American University in Washington.
“Generally, the U.K. has been often more at the forefront, maybe more at the vanguard of being more supportive of Ukraine,” he told VOA. “So, it’s a question here — especially if you’re thinking about the debates over long-range strikes — are they able now to come up on a sort of similar position?”
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday ahead of the visit to Kyiv, Blinken said that President Joe Biden is “not ruling out” allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike targets inside Russia.
Ukraine has had “what it needed, when it needed it, to be effective in repelling the Russian aggression,” Blinken said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Biden in Washington Friday, with Ukraine and the Middle East top of the agenda.
“Particularly for Ukraine and for the Middle East, the next few weeks and months are critically important,” Starmer told the BBC on Sunday. “And therefore, it’s important for me to speak to President Biden about our shared response, the response of our allies to the pressing, immediate issues, but also to the more strategic long-term issues.”
Last week, Britain announced the suspension of some arms sales to Israel over concerns its attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza breach humanitarian law, which Israel denies. The U.S. is continuing to supply weapons and says it does not believe Israel is breaking international law.
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