U.S. Warns Iran: Cooperating With Russia in Ukraine Is ‘a Really, Really Bad Idea’
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U.S. Warns Iran: Cooperating With Russia in Ukraine Is ‘a Really, Really Bad Idea’
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday warned Iran against supporting Russia with its invasion of Ukraine a day after the intractable U.S. adversaries publicly expressed a desire for new forms of cooperation, including potential weapons exchanges.[
“We would advise Iran not to do that,” Austin told reporters Wednesday afternoon shortly after convening a virtual meeting of the Western countries supporting Ukraine with weapons shipments and other forms of aid. “We think it’s a really, really bad idea.”
Austin did not offer any further details on what the U.S. is prepared to do to deter Iran from cooperating with Russia. When pressed later, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who spoke alongside the secretary, declined to offer any specifics, dismissing the question as a policy issue.
But the new partnership comes at a particularly fraught time for President Joe Biden as his administration struggles to pressure Iran to rejoin the 2015 agreement governing its nuclear program – with no significant signs of success so far.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin, visibly emboldened despite intense Western pressure since ordering the invasion, completed a trip to Tehran this week to meet with his counterpart as well as the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Though ostensibly about each country’s involvement in the ongoing wars in Syria, the leaders appeared to discuss new forms of military cooperation, including potential weapons sales as Russia enters the sixth month of its war.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that the U.S. believes Iran was prepared to deliver as many as 100 drones to Russia to gain new advantages against some of Ukraine’s sophisticated Western-supplied weapons. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said after Putin completed his trip that the U.S. had no indication the two countries had agreed on a sale.
Russia’s ambassador to Iran unsubtly stated Wednesday morning that Iran and his country “have no problems, no restriction regarding military-technical cooperation.”
“There are no restrictions there,” Ambassador Levan Jagaryan told a local news channel.
And Putin, who cloistered himself in Moscow for the first few months of the Russian invasion, now appears much more willing to travel internationally to shore up support from his allies and partners despite intense Western sanctions and travel restrictions on Russia’s top officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday morning that Putin is planning “several more visits” to foreign countries this fall.
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