The United States, Britain, France and Germany announced new sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, accusing the country of having delivered ballistic missiles to Russia to strike Ukraine. In return, Tehran threatened to take “measures” after the European sanctions. According to Kiev’s allies, Russia could use Iranian missiles to strike Ukraine “in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has said that the United States is “working” to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles, while Volodymyr Zelensky wants to be able to strike the bases from which the Russian army launches its attacks.
Key information to remember
⇒ The United States is “working” to authorize the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine
⇒ US and British Foreign Ministers Visit kyiv
⇒ Iran threatens to respond to European sanctions
Iran threatens to take ‘measures’ after EU sanctions
In response to the new sanctions announced by the United Kingdom, Germany and France, Iran has threatened to take “measures”, without detailing which ones, but promising to respond “appropriately and proportionally”. “This action by the three European countries is part of the continuation of the West’s hostile policy and economic terrorism against the Iranian people,” the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Nasser Kanani also once again denied that his country had supplied weapons to Russia to be used in the war in Ukraine. “As has been emphasized before, any claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran has sold ballistic missiles to the Russian Federation is completely unfounded and false,” he said.
Ukraine and IMF agree on new aid
The Ukrainian government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached an agreement on Tuesday on the fifth review of the aid program in place for Ukraine, opening the door to the payment of a new tranche of $1.1 billion. This new tranche, which must still be validated by the IMF’s executive board, will bring to $8.7 billion the funds already paid to the war-torn country, out of a total of $15.6 billion under the program. The latter is part of a major international aid plan totaling $122 billion, approved in March 2023 by all the countries supporting Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
US and British Foreign Ministers Expected in kyiv
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy are traveling to Ukraine on Wednesday to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss, among other things, easing the rules for the use of Western weapons against Russia, which is accused of buying ballistic missiles from Iran. In London, the head of American diplomacy has already promised that the United States would provide Ukraine “with what it needs, when it needs it, to be as effective as possible in its fight against Russian aggression.” But Antony Blinken, who is making his fifth trip to kyiv since the start of the war, also considers it important to verify that Ukrainian forces are able to maintain and use some of the weapons. Asked whether Washington would give kyiv the green light for long-range weapons, Blinken told Sky News: “We don’t rule out doing that, but when we do, we want to make sure it’s done in a way that advances the goals that the Ukrainians are trying to achieve.”
US long-range missiles soon to be used by Ukraine?
Joe Biden assured Tuesday that the United States was “working” to authorize Ukraine to use longer-range missiles against Russia. “We are working on it,” said the American president, questioned on an insistent request from his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who wants to be able to strike the bases from which the Russian army launches its attacks. kyiv is demanding that its allies lift restrictions to allow it to strike deep into Russian soil military targets deemed “legitimate”, such as air bases from which planes bombing Ukraine take off.
In a joint letter to Joe Biden, top Republican members of Congress called on him to act immediately. “As long as Russia continues its brutal and large-scale war of aggression, it must not be given a safe haven from which to carry out its war crimes against Ukraine with impunity,” said the letter, signed by Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.