Page 56 - bne Magazine August 2022

56 I Southeast Europe bne August 2022
Iran is in a position to supply Russia with hundreds of drones, according to the US. / Mehr News Agency.
US warns of ‘profound threat’ of Putin’s efforts to deepen ties with Iran
Since the US warned Iran was set to supply Russia with drones, media have attempted to get some answers from Tehran on the matter. Rome daily La Repubblica on July 13 caught up with Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir- Abdollahian as he paid a visit to the Italian capital. However, his comments to the newspaper, as relayed by The Associated Press, largely served to muddy the waters.
Amir-Abdollahian insisted Iran opposes Russia’s war against Ukraine, but was vague on whether Tehran’s military cooperation with Moscow would include sales of drones that could carry missiles.
The top Iranian diplomat was quoted
as saying that “we are against Russia’s military attack in Ukraine’’, while also observing that “we have various types of collaboration with Russia, including in the defence sector”. He then asserted that “we won’t help either of the sides involved in this war because we believe that it [the war] needs to be stopped”.
In further remarks, Amir-Abdollahian
hit out at Western countries, saying their arms manufacturers want to sell the world weapons. “We will avoid any action that could lead to an escalation, but we will work to stop the war,” he concluded.
With some experts assessing that Iran is potentially only weeks away from having enough fissile material for one nuclear bomb – though weaponising it into a modern nuclear weapon might take an additional few years, or several months by some estimates – the fate
of the dormant 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA, will also be raised by Biden in his talks during his Middle East tour.
AlJazeera on July 13 reported Iran as saying it remained committed to reviving the agreement with world powers that would curb the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for
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Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to deepen ties with
Iran amid the Ukraine conflict amount to a "profound threat," US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on July 13.
Sullivan's comments come as US officials monitor what they have claimed is an Iranian plan to supply Russia with several hundred drones, including some that are weapons- capable and surveillance drones, for
use in the heat of battle in Ukraine. Washington is also keenly aware that Moscow and Tehran are accelerating and building trade and investment
links that will help the Kremlin counter impacts of Western sanctions imposed in response to the war. Putin is expected to visit Tehran next week where he will hold one-on-one and trilateral meetings with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
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and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. US President Joe Biden on July 13 arrived in Tel Aviv at the start of a planned four-day trip to the Middle East taking in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia. Iran is clearly high on his agenda.
Sullivan referred to the timing of the Putin trip as "interesting".
"Russia deepening an alliance with Iran to kill Ukrainians is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat," Sullivan said.
“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran to kill Ukrainians is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat"