TOKYO, August 7. /TASS/. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has refuted statements about Iran’s purported drone supplies to Russia, noting that it was precisely the West providing weapons to Ukraine that led to the exacerbation of the conflict and its subsequent deterioration.

"[During] the Ukrainian conflict, we have never supplied Iranian drones or weapons to Russia," the NHK TV channel quoted him as saying at a press conference in Tokyo ahead of talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi. "It is precisely the arms supplies by Europe and the US that led to further destruction and slaughter," he added.

That said, the top Iranian diplomat noted that Russia is Iran's "important neighbor." "We cooperate with Russia in various fields, including trade, the economy and tourism," he stressed.

Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly rejected allegations of Russia’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov deemed such reports to be fake news and affirmed that the Russian Army used Russian-made drones. In November of 2022, Amir-Abdollahian said that the Islamic Republic of Iran had sent drones to Russia but that a small number of them had been shipped several months prior to the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.