An upcoming report to the UN Security Council obtained by Axios about Iran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal does not accuse Iran of supplying Russia with drones for the war in Ukraine, despite pressure from the US and its allies to do so.
Russia has pushed back hard, and so far successfully, on Western efforts to convince UN Secretary-General António Guterres to order an investigation into Iran's alleged supply of drones, Barak Ravid of Axios reported on Wednesday. Guterres makes no definitive statement on the issue in his forthcoming report.
In the report, Guterres details several letters he received from representatives of the US, France, Germany, the UK and Ukraine arguing that Iran transferred drones to Russia “in a manner inconsistent with" UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which codified the Iran nuclear deal.
Guterres also writes that he received letters from representatives of Iran and Russia rejecting the allegations and stressing that even if Iran did provide drones, that would not violate the resolution, according to Axios.
Under Resolution 2231, which passed in 2015 as part of the nuclear deal, countries are not allowed to transfer or receive from Iran ballistic missiles and drones that have a range of more than 300 kilometers and a payload of more than 500 kilograms until October 2023.
The US and European powers argue that the ban applies to the Iranian drones. The Russians and Iranians disagree.
Guterres has been trapped in an argument between the two sides since October over whether to deploy UN experts to investigate the matter, according to letters obtained by Axios and the accounts of four diplomatic sources directly involved in the issue.
The US and European powers are demanding a UN investigation, but Russia argues Guterres has no authority to authorize one without a decision from the Security Council (which Russia would likely veto).
However, two diplomats from the Western Security Council member states said that the UN's legal adviser and undersecretary of political affairs both determined Guterres does have a mandate to deploy experts, and there are precedents from similar cases in the Middle East.
A Western official told Axios that Guterres must order the investigation now and "not give in to pressure from Russia."
A UN source told Axios that Guterres was in a very difficult position. “Every week the secretary-general received letters from each side with completely contradictory information. There was a lot of pressure from both sides, and the secretary-general had to walk a very fine line."
In July, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US had intelligence indicating that Russia is looking to Iran for UAVs.
He indicated at the time that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several UAVs for use in Ukraine, and train Russian forces to use these UAVs.
A month later, it was reported that Iran had begun training Russians to use its drones, though it was also noted that Russia is experiencing “numerous failures” and technical glitches with the drones it purchased from Iran.
In September, Ukraine reported the first Russian attacks carried out using Iranian-made drones, targeting the south of the country, including the strategic city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
At the start of October, Iranian-made drones were also reportedly used in an attack in the Ukrainian town of Bila Tserkva, southwest of the capital Kyiv.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, recently acknowledged for the first time that his country gave drones to Russia, saying that the deliveries happened before the war started. Iranian officials had previously denied sending any drones to Russia.
Russia, however, continues to deny it has received drones from Iran. On Tuesday, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy representative to the United Nations, told i24NEWS that reports of Iran supplying his country with drones are a “fairytale”.
"We repeatedly denied our use of Iranian drones. I think that our military-industrial complex is capable of producing enough weaponry for us, and we don't need to use anybody else's weaponry," he added.