The West is taking a swipe at Iran, with several nations deciding to impose restrictive measures against Tehran to punish it for allegedly supplying missiles to Vladimir Putin’s Russia to attack Ukraine. The United States has adopted a new package of sanctions, as have France, Germany and the United Kingdom, which has also decided to cut off all air links with the nation, in an effort to further isolate it.
The measures are a response to what Western allies have called “a dramatic escalation” by Iran, which the US says has sent Russia deadly new ballistic missiles to use in Ukraine. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made the announcement in a visit to London, as he prepared to travel to Kiev with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The complaint
The news, first confirmed by Washington and considered of enormous importance for the balance on the battlefield in view of the difficult Ukrainian winter, has prompted the United States and some European nations to impose new sanctions on Iran, thus apparently slamming the door on the prospect of a rapprochement between the new reformist Iranian government and the West.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also proposed a new package of sanctions against Iran after receiving “credible information” that it was sending ballistic missiles to Russia. “Russia has received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will probably use them within a few weeks in Ukraine, against Ukraine,” Blinken said, citing information that had been shared with US allies and partners around the world.
“This is a troubling action that we are seeing from Iran. It is certainly a significant escalation and we are coordinating,” he added. The secretary of state said Iran has also trained dozens of Russian service members in the use of its Fath-360 short-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 121 kilometers.
The sanctions
Washington announced sanctions against six Iranian drone and ballistic missile companies that supply Moscow under a contract signed in late 2023, as well as 10 of their executives and employees. The United States later identified nine Russian-flagged vessels it said were involved in arms deliveries from Iran to Russia, designating them as “blocked property.”
The Iranian airline Iran Air has also been targeted by these new economic interventions and the US Treasury Department in a press release specified that “international partners are announcing measures that will prevent Iran Air from operating on their territory in the future”. Among these is London which has announced that it will “end all direct air links” with Iran. “We will continue to use all levers at our disposal to pressure Iran to stop supporting the illegal invasion led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is why we have begun to end all direct flights between the UK and Iran”, said Transport Minister Louise Haigh in a statement.
Iran denies
Iran has previously supplied Shahed drones used by Russia in Ukraine, but has denied supplying Russia with ballistic missiles. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaanion wrote in X that Iran considers the West’s denunciation “bad propaganda” to hide Western military support for Israel. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm the reports, but told reporters that Russia is cooperating with Iran even in “the most sensitive” areas.
