US accuses UN of heeding Russian threats instead of investigating Iranian drones

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Several countries, including the U.S., argued that Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by supplying drones to Russia.
• They called on the U.N. to send officials to Kyiv to investigate, but they have yet to do so.
• The U.S. accused the U.N. secretariat of heeding Russian threats instead of carrying out the investigation.

The U.S. and other countries condemned Iran for supplying Russia with drones that were being used in the war on Ukraine, and called on the U.N. to send officials to Kyiv to inspect the drones. But the intergovernmental organization has yet to start an investigation in Kyiv, prompting U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood to accuse U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “apparently yielding to Russian threats.”

Russia denied using Iranian drones in Ukraine and argued that U.N. officials have no mandate to travel to Kyiv to investigate the drones’ origin. Iran admitted to sending drones to Russia, but claimed that the supplies were sent before February, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

Britain, France, Germany, and Ukraine joined the U.S. in lodging a complaint that Iran violated a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution by supplying drones to Russia. The resolution enshrines the Iran nuclear deal.

The countries urged the U.N. to send officials to investigate the drones in Kyiv.

The Security Council met on Monday to discuss the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resolution.

During the meeting, Wood stated, “We regret that the U.N. has not moved to carry out a normal investigation of this reported violation. We are disappointed that the Secretariat, apparently yielding to Russian threats, has not carried out the investigatory mandate this council has given it.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called it a “pseudo investigation” and said that any results should be considered “null and void.” He added that the U.N. “should not bow to pressure from Western countries.”

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s U.N. ambassador, said that Iran has not sent Russia any prohibited items, and that the Iranian drones in question were not banned by the council. He insisted that the drones were sent to Russia before February and were not sent “for use in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.”

Iravani remarked that such baseless accusations were only made “to divert attention from the Western States’ transfer of massive amounts of advanced sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine in order to prolong the conflict.”

Earlier this month, Guterres told the council that U.N. authorities have been investigating the available information and that the results of such examination would be shared in due course.

On Monday, Guterres said that they are looking into the accusations in a “broader” sense “of everything we are doing in the context of the war to determine if and when we should” send officials to investigate in Kyiv.

Source: Reuters