White House has not yet confirmed transfer of Iranian missiles to Russia, but is preparing new sanctions - Kirby
This statement was made on Thursday during a telephone briefing by the coordinator of the National Security Council of the White House, John Kirby, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
"Iran is providing Russia with a significant number of drones, guided aerial bombs, and artillery ammunition, which Russia is using in some way to attack Ukraine. In addition, as I warned last month from the White House podium, Russia's negotiations to acquire short-range ballistic missiles from Iran are actively progressing," Kirby said.
He recalled that the day before, Reuters had published a story about Iran's transfer of hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia. According to him, this article is based on comments by Iranian officials "who boast that they have provided Russia with missiles that can be used to kill Ukrainian civilians."
In this regard, a representative of the administration said: "While we are following this closely, we have not seen any confirmation that missiles were actually moved from Iran to Russia. But in this publication, the Iranians clearly state that they will send ballistic missiles to Russia, and we have no reason to believe that they will not follow through."
According to Kirby, if Iran transfers these weapons to the Russian side, the international community's response will be "swift and severe."
"For our part, we will bring this issue to the UN Security Council. We will impose additional sanctions against Iran. And we will coordinate further retaliatory steps with our allies and partners in Europe and elsewhere," the administration official said.
He also said that the United States is already preparing sanctions against Iran, which will be announced in the coming days in response to Tehran's continued support for Russia.
"And we are ready to go further if Iran transfers ballistic missiles to Russia," the White House official emphasized.
Iran's supply of missiles to Russia
The day before, the US media reported that Iran had transferred about 400 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles to Russia. In particular, they may include Zolfaghar ballistic missiles of the Fateh-110 type, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 300 to 700 km.
