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Tehran cautions Kiev over its call to liquidate weapons production in Iran

As Nasser Kanaani Chafi said, Iran is ready to contribute to settling the crisis and finding a peace solution

TEHRAN, December 26. /TASS/. Calls to liquidate the production of Iranian weapons may have political and legal consequences for Ukraine, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani Chafi warned on Monday.

"Once again, we reiterate that we are not participating in the hostilities in Ukraine and are ready to contribute to settling the crisis and finding a peace solution. We deem the threats by Ukrainian officials to be irresponsible rhetoric that may have political and legal consequences," IRNA quoted Kanaani Chafi as saying in response to a remark made by Ukrainian Presidential Aide Mikhail Podolyak who earlier pushed for the liquidation of Iranian factories producing arms.

On Saturday, Podolyak called for tougher steps against Iran than sanctions. He claimed that Tehran was planning to boost missile and drone supplies to Russia which he said "blatantly humiliates" the institution of international sanctions. "[It is] important <…> to move to more destructive tools - [the] liquidation of plants, [and the] arrest of suppliers," Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Back in August, the Washington Post published an article saying that Iran sends its unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia, an allegation later echoed by Biden administration officials.

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 assured that the Russian Army used Russian-made drones. In early November, Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the Islamic Republic had sent drones to Russia but that a small number of them had been shipped several months prior to the special military operation in Ukraine.