European governments are using disputes over Iran’s alleged role in Ukraine and the nuclear dossier to justify tougher measures against Iran, Russia’s ambassador to Tehran told state media.
Alexey Dedov said accusations over Iran’s role in the Ukraine war were being used as “merely a pretext for taking aggressive anti-Iran measures,” adding that both Tehran and Moscow had rejected the allegations.
“In my view, European countries are seeking to punish any state that pursues an independent foreign policy and refuses to follow directives from Brussels or other European capitals,” ISNA quoted Dedov as saying.
He said this approach was reflected first in Europe’s stance on the snapback mechanism.
Iran has emerged as one of Russia’s key backers since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Tehran has been accused of supplying Russia with hundreds of Shahed-series attack drones.
Western governments and Kyiv say Iranian-made drones have played a central role in Russia’s aerial campaign, allegations Iran has repeatedly denied or played down.
“If the issue was not Ukraine, European countries would have found other pretexts to take hostile action against Iranian officials with the same self-serving approach,” Dedov said.
He said relations between Moscow and Tehran had reached an unprecedented level in recent years, adding that cooperation in the gas, electricity and nuclear sectors was expanding.
“Bushehr nuclear power plant is our main joint project, with its first unit having been successfully operating for more than 10 years,” he said, adding that construction of the second and third units was continuing and about 700 Russian specialists were working on the project.
Speaking to reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida, Trump said the United States will deal a heavy blow on Iran if it tries to recover from the US and Israeli strikes in June.
"I'm hearing that Iran is trying to recover—if that happens, we'll have to hit them hard," Trump added.
"If they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast. Okay? One will be yes, absolutely. The other was, we'll do it immediately," Trump said when asked if he would support Israel's strikes on Iran in case it further develops its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
In a joint press conference with Netanyahu later in the day, Trump said he hopes Iran is "not trying to build up again, because if they are, we're going to have no choice, but very quickly to eradicate that buildup."
"I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I've been reading, that they're building up weapons and other things. And if they are, they're not using the sites that we obliterated, but they're using possibly different sites. We know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, and I hope they're not doing it, because we don't want to waste the fuel on B-2, it's a 37-hour trip both ways. I don't want to waste a lot of fuel," he said.
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program earlier this year, for which Trump set a 60-day deadline.
When no agreement was reached by the 61st day on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military offensive followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
The attacks killed nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians. Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said dealing with Trump is beneath the dignity of the Islamic Republic, while Iranian officials have rejected US demands to end uranium enrichment and curb missile capabilities.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Oman’s Foreign Minister on Monday over the phone. Oman has previously mediated negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Trump blames Obama for nuclear Iran
Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump shared a post on his Truth Social account of an old share on X that the Obama and Biden administrations gave money to Iran to fund its nuclear program.
The message originated on X from an account using the pen name Chris Bjornberg and was part of a promotion for his 2023 book “The Night Rider and the Warrior Queen.”
“One of Obama’s most treasonous policies was to fund Iran’s nuclear program,” the post shared by Trump said, alongside an image of a nuclear explosion over New York City and further criticism of Democratic administrations’ Iran policy.
“Biden and Obama gave Iran over $220 billion to research and build nukes. Iran nearly had 6 nuclear bombs and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) that would have destroyed Israel and 5 cities in the US," the post said.
The Obama administration negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which restricted Tehran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, before Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018.
Iran has since expanded its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits, and the deal has effectively stalled.
