The White House is promising to announce new sanctions against Iran in the coming days in response to its arms sales to Russia, and has threatened a "swift" and "severe" response if Tehran moves forward with ballistic missile sales to Moscow.
This was stated in the AP report.
White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said on Thursday, Feb. 22, that the US "will impose additional sanctions against Iran in the coming days" for its attempts to supply Russia with drones and other equipment for the war against Ukraine.
He issued a new warning to Iran that providing ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine would be met with more sanctions and action at the UN.
The report indicated that for months the U.S. has warned of Russian attempts to acquire ballistic missiles from Iran in exchange for increased military cooperation with Tehran.
"We have not seen any confirmation that missiles have actually moved from Iran to Russia," Kirby said, but noted that at the same time, "we have no reason to believe that they will not follow through"
He stated that if Iran moves forward, ".... I can assure you that the response from the international community will be swift and it will be severe." Kirby added that the US would take the matter to the UN Security Council, where Russia has a veto.
"We will impose additional sanctions on Iran and coordinate further responses with our allies and partners in Europe and elsewhere," Kirby said.
He also noted the ability to take appropriate action on the "military partnership" between Russia and Iran:
"We have demonstrated our ability to take action in response to the military partnership between Russia and Iran in the past. We will do so in the future. In response to Iran’s ongoing support for Russia’s brutal war. We will be imposing additional sanctions on Iran in the coming days. And we are prepared to go further if Iran sells ballistic missiles to Russia."
Earlier "Apostrophe" reported that Iran has already sent several shipments of 400 surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.