TEHRAN- Russia says any UN probe into the alleged use of Iranian made drones in the Ukraine war would be politically motivated, biased and won’t deliver accurate results. It is not for the first time that the United States and its Western proxies have levelled fake accusations against Iran with the intent of damaging Tehran’s international relations.

This time, Washington is damaging Tehran’s relations with Kiev, by alleging that Russia is using Iranian made drones in the Ukraine war. The claims have been rejected by both Tehran and Moscow as false with Tehran calling on Ukraine to provide evidence that Iranian drones are being used. Russia's foreign ministry also says the West is seeking to put pressure on Tehran.

Ukraine initially made the claim which was immediately backed by the Pentagon. The U.S. began spreading the fake propaganda to break Iran’s growing diplomatic ties with the international community, which have expanded, in line with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s foreign policy.

Tehran has said that it has had decades-long military relationship with Russia but is strongly against the delivery of arms to Russia or Ukraine. Since day one of the conflict, the Islamic Republic has been reiterating that dialogue is the only way to end the fighting.

However, this does not sit well with Washington and it has succeeded in persuading the West to follow suit and hit Iran with punitive measures over alleged drone sales. Both the European Union and the United Kingdom have blacklisted Iran over the unfounded allegations.

The Czech presidency of the EU says the bloc’s members have agreed on measures against Iran, saying "EU ambassadors agreed on measures against entities supplying Iranian drones that hit Ukraine."

Tehran has expressed its disappointment that the EU has fallen into Washington’s trap and has vowed reciprocal measures, some of which have already been implemented.  

The U.S., UK, Germany and France have called on the UN to probe the matter but experts say any investigation should be conducted by a delegation made up of neutral countries and the UN Security Council is not authorized to conduct a probe.

The concern among many nations who face similar false accusations by the White House is that anything presented by some Western countries with a history of fabricating the facts is the way in which that evidence is twisted. This is particularly true of the United States and its Western allies sitting on the UN Security Council.

In December 2017, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley stood in front of a pile of debris and scrap metal that could have been collected from the White House waste storage facilities and claimed that they were remnants of Iranian missiles that had been launched from Yemen.

It’s just simply not enough to present so-called evidence with “made in Iran” written on a piece of metal because the American special forces in eastern Ukraine can easily make that up.

Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy argues that “after the secretariat digs something or other studies or whatever they need is handed by the West, they try to present it as the conclusions of the Secretary General. This is very unprofessional and costs a shadow on its authority. We hope that the Secretariat and the Secretary General himself will not again violate the decisions of the UN Security Council and will not go beyond their technical mandate and will abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation. Otherwise we have to reassess our collaboration with them which is hardly in anyone’s interest. We do not want to do it but there will be no other choice.”

The irony is that countries such as Iran, China, Turkey and many others who are pushing for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are under scrutiny by Western powers, whereas the West is prolonging the conflict by sending weapons to the tune of tens of billions of dollars to the war zone.

Russia says it is being unfairly treated by some members of the UN Security Council over the Ukraine conflict and has said it will reevaluate its cooperation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his staff if he sends so-called experts to Ukraine to inspect any downed drones there that the West claims were made in Iran.

Polyanskiy made the revelation without elaborating on what cooperation could be affected.

The West has been citing UN Security Council resolution 2231, which supposedly bans Iran from transferring missiles with the ability to carry nuclear warheads. The resolution ended in 2020 despite Washington’s strong efforts to extend it. In any case, it has been confirmed by international spy agencies, including the U.S. intelligence community, that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.  

Polyanskiy told reporters no arms transfers in violation of resolution 2231 have been ever conducted by Iran and no drones were supplied by Iran to Russia for use in the conflict in Ukraine. He says Moscow “would recommend [the West] that you do not underestimate technological capabilities of the Russian drone industry. I can tell you, we know what we do and we know how to do it.”

The Russian diplomat says “when you see in the debris on the ground after they hit the targets, you would see inscriptions in Russian on the shell,” accusing the West of playing a “game of the words”, before adding “but I would say that we have our drone industry which produces the things that we need for this campaign.”

Moscow argues that the role of the UN Secretariat has no mandate to investigate anything regarding United Nations Security Council resolution 2231. Polyanskiy says, “Its role as enshrined in the note of the Security Council President 2016/44 of 16th January 2016 is purely technical to prepare meeting rooms, circulate communications etcetera. They are not a sanctions committee, or a panel of experts. We have been dissatisfied with the overall performance of the Secretary of the resolution 2231. They act in a biased way, following the guidance from the Western capitals and engage in illegal investigations in third countries. Though they have neither the mandate nor expertise to do so."

There is a clear division emerging between those who want to see the end of the Ukraine war and those who want to see it carrying on. Moscow says it is open to negotiations aimed at ending the conflict. Over the past days, more reports have emerged indicating Moscow’s openness to talks with Ukraine that broke down in March. There have also been reports mediators have made attempts to resume the talks.

When the Russian diplomat was asked where he thinks those negotiations are going at this stage in time, he did not express much optimism, because “we look at the practical results not at some kind of wishful thinking, practical results are very modest to put it mildly”. Expanding on Moscow's lack of optimism, he says “the things that were promised to us are not being implemented.”

Asked what Russia is expecting from the U.S. and the EU, he said “to implement what was promised to us by the second part of this deal which is being neglected by Western countries.”

He was referring to Russia's food products and fertilizers which was agreed at the United Nations to be on the market and ease global food supplies but that has not been implemented in another setback to easing trust in any peace talks aimed at easing the Ukraine conflict.

Russia's foreign ministry says Moscow is ready to boost exports of food and fertilizers to help avert the global food crisis, but is being blocked from doing so by the United States. The ministry says Washington was "blackmailing" and "persecuting" those who try to trade with Russia, using the pretext of sanctions, and was therefore compromising global food security.