The United States, France and the United Kingdom called a closed-door Security Council meeting on drones after Monday’s attack in Kyiv killed at least five people and caused widespread damage to power plants and other civilian infrastructure. Ukraine says its military has shot down more than 220 Iranian drones, officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in just over a month and has invited UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Ukraine to inspect some of the wreckage which he has collected. Speaking after the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky insisted the weapons had been made in Russia and condemned “baseless accusations and conspiracy theories”. He called on Guterres and his staff to “refrain from participating in any illegal investigation. Otherwise, we will have to reassess our cooperation with them, which is not in anyone’s interest,” he told reporters. The US and the European Union say they have evidence that Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed-136, low-cost drones that explode on landing. Washington says any arms transfer was against UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a now-moribund agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear activities and prevent development of nuclear weapons by the country. A close-up of debris from what Kyiv described as an Iranian Shahed drone that was shot down near Kupiansk, Ukraine [File: Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Directorate via AP Photo] Tehran denies supplying the drones to Russia and earlier this week said it was ready for “dialogue and negotiation with Ukraine to clear up these allegations” after Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine should stop the diplomatic ties with Tehran. On Wednesday, Iran’s U.N. envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, rejected the “baseless and baseless allegations” about the drone deliveries and said Tehran, which abstained from votes on the war, wanted a “peaceful resolution” of the conflict, which began when Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on February 24. Iravani said Ukraine’s invitation “lacks legal basis” and called on Guterres to “prevent any abuse” of the resolution and UN officials on issues related to the Ukraine war. “Iran firmly believes that none of its arms exports, including UAVs, to any country” violates Resolution 2231, he added.
The EU is preparing sanctions
Under the 2015 resolution, a conventional arms embargo on Iran was in place until October 2020. But Ukraine and its Western allies argue that the resolution still includes restrictions on missiles and related technologies until October 2023 and may include the export and purchase of advanced military systems such as drones. French UN ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said Guterres has “a clear mandate twice a year to report on all these things and make technical assessments, so I think the UN secretariat should go and will go”. Guterres reports twice a year to the Security Council — traditionally in June and December — on the implementation of the 2015 resolution. Any assessment of drones in Ukraine would likely be included in that report. “From a political point of view, we are always ready to look at any information and analyze any information brought to us by member states,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday. Today I raised with the Security Council the UK’s serious concerns about Iranian drones being used to target civilians in Ukraine by Russia. The Iranians have denied it, but it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Council members asked the UN to investigate. 1/2 — Ambassador James Kariuki (@JamesKariuki_UN) October 19, 2022 The EU is expected to approve drone sanctions ahead of a summit that starts Thursday in Brussels. A list seen by AFP news agency showed the 27-nation group would take action against three senior military officials, including General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, as well as drone maker Shahed Aviation Industries , of an aerospace company. is associated with the country’s Revolutionary Guards. Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the bloc had “collected our evidence” and would prepare “a clear, swift and firm EU response”.
