Russia has received ballistic missiles from Iran and will likely use them in Ukraine within weeks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, warning that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatens wider European security.

Blinken, speaking at a news conference in London ahead of a visit to Kyiv alongside Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said Washington had privately warned Iran that providing ballistic missiles to Russia would “constitute a dramatic escalation” and said new sanctions would be imposed later on Tuesday.

“Russia has now received shipments with these ballistic missiles, and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukraine,” Blinken said, citing intelligence that he said has been shared with US allies and partners around the world.

The supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line in Ukraine, Blinken said.

“This development and the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran‘s destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East.”

Russia was also sharing technology with Iran, including on nuclear issues, he added.

Additional US sanctions on Iran will include the airline Iran Air, and other countries are also expected to announce new sanctions, Blinken said.

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A trustee of the Brown University Corporation has resigned from his position, citing the body’s upcoming vote on a proposal to divest the school’s investments linked to Israel or companies that do business with it.

“I disagree with the upcoming divestment vote on Israel,” hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman wrote in an op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, explaining his decision. “I am concerned about what Brown’s willingness to hold such a vote suggests about the university’s attitude toward rising antisemitism on campus and a growing political movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel.”

As previously reported, Brown University agreed in May to hold a vote on divestment from Israel, a demand put forth by the anti-Zionist student Brown Divest Coalition (BDC). In exchange, BDC dismantled a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” they had lived in illegally for three weeks to protest the Israel-Hamas war and the university’s academic and economic ties to Israel. According to The Brown Daily Herald, Brown president Christina Paxson initially only promised the protesters a meeting with members of the Brown Corporation, but the students pushed for more concessions and ultimately coaxed her into making divestment a real possibility.

In May, representatives of BDC met with the Brown Corporation for preliminary talks, the Herald has reported. Since then, they have submitted a report outlining their recommendations for divestment to the university’s Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACRUM). ACRUM will, by Sept. 30, review it and issue its own report of recommendations, which Paxson will forward to the Brown Corporation. So far, the president has described their discussions positively, saying in a letter to the campus community that “the members of the Corporation expressed appreciation to the students for sharing their views and perspectives.”

Edelman castigated the university for acceding to demands he says are rooted in antisemitism and murderous intent.

“It’s no coincidence that leading pro-boycott groups have ties to terrorist organizations that seek the annihilation of the Jewish people,” he wrote. “In the end, that is the goal of the BDS movement, and I can’t accept the treatment of a hate movement as legitimate and deserving of a hearing. Brown’s policy of appeasement won’t work. It’s a capitulation to the very hatred that led to the Holocaust and the unspeakable horrors of Oct. 7.”

He added, “It’s as if the Brown board has agreed to vote on whether Israel has a right to exist, and even whether Jews have a right to exist. I consider the willingness to hold this vote a stunning failure of moral leadership at Brown University. I am unwilling to lend my name or give my time to a body that lacks basic moral judgement. I hereby resign from the board of trustees.”

Despite being reputed as one of the most progressive colleges in America, Brown University has until recently fiercely guarded its campus against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to isolate Israel from the world community as the first step towards its destruction. Just months ago, Paxson ordered arrests of dozens of students for unlawful activity and rejected BDS even after BDC amassed inside an administrative building and vowed not to eat until she capitulated.

“We consistently reject calls to use the endowment as a tool for political advocacy on contested issues,” Paxson said in a letter to the students participating in the hunger strike. “Our campus is a place where difficult issues should be freely discussed and debated. It is not appropriate for the university to use its financial assets — which are there to support our entire community  — to ‘take a side’ on issues on which thoughtful people vehemently disagree.”

Paxson’s sudden concession to a group that has cheered terrorism and anti-Jewish hatred could lead to “immediate and profound legal consequences,” two dozen attorneys general warned in a letter late last month.

“It may trigger the application of laws in nearly three-fourths of states prohibiting states and their instrumentalities from contracting with, investing in, or otherwise doing business with entities that discriminate against Israel, Israelis, or those who do business with either,” the missive, written principally by Arkansas state attorney Tim Griffin, explained. “Adopting that proposal may require our states — and others — to terminate any existing relationships with Brown and those associated with it, divest from any university debt held by state pension plans and other investment vehicles, and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown and those associated with. We therefore urge you to reject this antisemitic and unlawful proposal.”

Thirty-five states in the US have anti-BDS laws on their books, including New York, Texas, Nevada, Illinois, and California. Tennessee passed one in April 2023, and in the same year, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) issued an executive order banning agencies from awarding contracts with companies participating in the BDS movement. The justice system has repeatedly upheld the legality of such measures. In February 2023, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Arkansas’ anti-BDS law, which argued that requiring contractors to confirm that they are not boycotting Israel before doing business with the University of Arkansas is unconstitutional. Several months later, a federal appeals court dismissed a challenge to Texas’ anti-BDS law, ruling that the plaintiff who brought it lacked standing.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Russia on Monday called Iran “our important partner” while failing to explicitly deny reports that it received short-range ballistic missiles from Tehran to use in its war against Ukraine.

The comments were the latest indication of increased coordination between Moscow and Tehran, a burgeoning partnership that has alarmed Western countries including the US.

CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Iran had transferred the missiles to Russia, as Moscow continues to wage war in Ukraine after its 2022 invasion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said of the reports that “this kind of information is not true every time.” However, he quickly touted Russia’s relationship with Iran and said the relationship would continue to grow.

“Iran is our important partner,” he told reporters. “We are developing our trade and economic relations. We are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive ones, and will continue to do so in the interests of the peoples of our two countries.”

Meanwhile, Iranian officials adamantly denied reports of supplying Russia with missiles.

“We strongly reject allegations about Iran’s role in sending weapons to one side of the war and we assess these allegations as politically motivated by some parties,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a press conference.

Separately, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an internationally designated terrorist organization, refuted the reports.

“No missile was sent to Russia and this claim is a kind of psychological warfare,” Fazlollah Nozari was quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency as saying. “Iran does not support any of the parties to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.”

Despite the denials, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned a senior Iranian diplomat to warn of “devastating and irreparable consequences” for bilateral relations if the missile reports were correct.

“Iran must completely and definitively stop providing weapons to Russia in order to prove with actions, not words, the sincerity of its political leadership’s statements about non-involvement in fueling the Russian war machine of death,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

US officials expressed alarm over the idea of Iran supplying Russia with missiles.

“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the White House said.

CIA Director William Burns warned of the growing and “troubling” defense relationship between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea while speaking at a public event in London over the weekend. He said their increased coordination and cooperation threatened not only Ukraine but also Western allies in the Middle East.

The European Union (EU) described as “credible” information provided by allies indicating Iran has supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to help Moscow wage war in Ukraine.

“We are aware of the credible information provided by allies on the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said. “We are looking further into it with our member states and, if confirmed, this delivery would represent a substantive material escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Stano added that the EU “will respond swiftly and in coordination with international partners, including with new and significant restrictive measures against Iran.”

Western and Ukrainian officials have dismissed denials of Iranian weapons transfers in the past. Russia has been receiving Iranian-made Shahed drones since 2022 and using them against Ukraine, according to analysts and government officials.

Reuters and other media outlets also reported earlier this year that Iran sent ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, indicating the latest reported missile transfer wasn’t the first.

Warming ties between Moscow and Tehran have extended beyond military matters. For the past two years, Iran and Russia have been working on a major comprehensive bilateral agreement to strengthen cooperation in a wide array of areas. Officials from both countries have said in recent months that the deal will be signed in the near future without elaborating.

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