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Russia Calls Iran ‘Our Important Partner’ Amid Reports of Missile Transfer
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Russian Security Council’s Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 5, 2024. Photo: Iran’s Presidency/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
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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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.