Iran will respond appropriately to reduction of diplomatic missions in Kyiv

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday expressed regret over Ukraine’s announcement to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran.

“We regret the Ukrainian government’s decision regarding diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and this decision is based on false information,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.

“We will respond with appropriate measures to the decision of the Ukrainian government, and we advise the government of this country to avoid being influenced by third parties who seek to destroy relations between the two countries,” Kanaani added.

Kanaani stressed that “with reference to the clear policy of neutrality of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we affirm our country’s opposition to war and the need to settle disputes through diplomacy, away from violence”.

Ukraine said on Friday it was reducing Iran’s diplomatic presence in the country, saying Tehran was supplying Russia with weapons to use against kyiv forces.

The temporary charge d’affaires of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ukraine has been summoned” in this regard, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

A ministry statement said Tehran’s alleged arms supply to Russia “directly contradicts Ukraine’s stance of neutrality, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” and was “a hostile act that bears a serious blow to Ukraine-Iran relations”.

“In response to such a hostile act, the Ukrainian side has decided to deprive the Iranian Ambassador to Ukraine of his accreditation, as well as to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic staff at the Iranian Embassy in Kyiv” , the ministry added.

This comes after an article was published on April 12 by The Guardianheadlined “Russia uses arms smuggled by Iran from Iraq against Ukraine”, in which the daily claims that Russia is receiving arms shipments from Iraq by Iran for the war in Ukraine.

However, the Russian Embassy in Tehran issued a statement in response, saying the published information about Iran’s arms shipments to Russia is “an unrealistic and baseless narrative”.

To add, an Israeli arms manufacturing company decided, according to a Ukrainian media report on Friday, to supply kyiv with air defense systems to counter Iranian-made drones, which the United States claimed to have obtained from the Russia.

A few days ago, Israeli media reported that Israeli companies in the security industry had supplied the Ukrainian army with anti-drone systems, capable of intercepting and jamming the action of combat drones.

There are reports that Western countries, led by the United States of America, Britain and the NATO alliance, continue to supply kyiv with advanced weapons in order to stoke the war in Ukraine.

Read: Ukraine announces heavier arms delivery to be expected from US