Iranian FM: Tehran not supporting any party to Ukraine war

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan has said that Tehran does not support any of the parties to the conflict in Ukraine.

He made the statement in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor on September 26.

"We have an agreement to have defence cooperation with Russia. But we are not supporting either side in the Ukrainian war which will result in the continuation of the war. We are strongly opposed to any kind of war, whether it is in Ukraine or in Yemen, or in Palestine. And we have also been involved in endeavours to bring about peace and ceasefire in Ukraine. We believe it is wrong for any party to send arms to either Ukraine or Russia. And we're going to keep helping the political dialogue and the resolution of this crisis through political talks," he said.

To recap, Ukraine has downgraded diplomatic ties with Iran and stripped its ambassador of his accreditation over what it called Tehran's "unfriendly" decision to supply Russian forces with drones.

The announcement late on September 23 came after Ukraine said it had downed four Iranian-made "kamikaze" unmanned aerial vehicles, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to complain Tehran was harming Ukrainian sovereignty and its citizens, The Guardian earlier reported.