DUBAI, November 18. /TASS/. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei has placed responsibility for the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis on the United States and other Western countries.

"We have never been a party to the Ukrainian conflict. We are convinced that the interference in the conflict by Western countries, in particular, the United States, was one of the causes of its escalation. We insist on a peaceful and diplomatic settlement of the crisis by its parties. We call on external players to stop fueling this confrontation," he told a briefing.

Since 2022, the United States and the European Union have imposed several packages of sanctions on Iran for its alleged military supplies to Russia. Both Russian and Iranian authorities have repeatedly denied these allegations. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov criticized reports on Iran’s supplies of ballistic missiles and drones to Russia as untrue.