Iran denounces US decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine
Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the US decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine shows Washington’s determination to prolong and complicate the war.
Kanaani made the comments after the US confirmed on Friday it was sending the weapons to Ukraine, with President Joe Biden calling it a “very difficult decision”.
“The US decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine shows Washington’s determination to perpetuate and further complicate the war in Ukraine,” Kanaani tweeted on Sunday.
“The move is another example of the United States’ destabilizing actions,” he said, adding that sending such weapons will “indiscriminately contribute to more bloodshed and destruction”.
Reports emerging earlier this week said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was pushing the United States to provide Kiev with cluster munitions to use against Russian forces.
Russia vehemently condemned the US decision to provide Ukraine with advanced cluster bombs and insisted that “the current level of American provocations is really off scale, bringing humanity closer to a new world war.”
Several allies of the US have expressed unease at Washington’s decision.
The UK, Canada, New Zealand and Spain all said they were opposed to the use of the weapons.
Cluster bombs have been banned by more than 100 countries because of the danger they pose to civilians. They typically release smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area.
The munitions have also caused controversy over their failure - or dud - rate. Unexploded bomblets can linger on the ground for years and then indiscriminately detonate.
The decision was quickly criticized by human rights groups, with Amnesty International saying cluster munitions pose “a grave threat to civilian lives, even long after the conflict has ended”.