NATO provoked Ukraine war: FM
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian highlighted the country’s efforts towards a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis, blaming the conflict on the US-led NATO military alliance and its provocations.
“We consider NATO and its provocations among the root causes of the war and crisis. We continue our efforts to stop the war and make the parties focus on a political solution,” he said on Monday at a press conference in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, according to Press TV.
In February 2022, Russia launched what it called a “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine partly to prevent NATO’s eastward expansion after warning that the military alliance was following an “aggressive line” against Moscow.
Since then, Western countries have been fueling the flames of the war with their unchecked delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
They, however, accuse Iran of providing Russia with military equipment including drones for use in Ukraine, an allegation categorically rejected by Tehran.
During a meeting with Amir-Abdollahian in Tokyo on Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi urged Iran not to provide Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine, echoing a claim which was once again denied by the Iranian foreign minister as “completely wrong and incorrect.”
Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran’s defense cooperation with Moscow has never involved the use of Iranian drones or weapons in the Ukraine war, as Russia itself is one of the world’s biggest arms producers and exporters.
Hayashi also called on Iran to take “constructive responses” to the war, with the two agreeing to continue “close communication” over issues affecting the Middle East, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said, according to the Japan Times.
The Iranian foreign minister also expressed Iran’s objection to the arming of any party to the Ukraine war, saying the flow of American and Western weapons to the former Soviet country will stoke insecurity and instability there and cause further deaths and destruction.
The Ukrainian side shunned a meeting with an Iranian military delegation in Warsaw, Poland, and it provided no acceptable documents in a later meeting in Oman, Amir-Abdollahian added. Later on Monday, Amir-Abdollahian also met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Japan holds this year’s presidency of the Group of Seven nations, which have maintained economic sanctions on Russia. Tokyo aims to leverage its traditional friendship with Tehran to help end the war.