U.S. and Iran clash at UNSC over Russia using Iran drones in Ukraine

The United States and its allies have clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine

The United States and its allies clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine — and the U.S. accused the U.N. secretary-general of “yielding to Russian threats” and failing to launch an investigation.

At a contentious Security Council meeting Monday on the resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers, the United States and Iran also accused each other of responsibility for stalled negotiations on the Biden administration rejoining the agreement that former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018.

Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani insisted Iran’s negotiating team exercised “maximum flexibility” in trying to reach agreement and even introduced an “innovative solution to the remaining issues to break the impasse.” But he claimed the “unrealistic and rigid approach” of the United States led to the current stalled talks on the 2015 agreement, known as the JCPOA.

“Let’s make it clear: pressure, intimidation and confrontation are not solutions and will get nowhere,” Mr Iravani said.

Iran is ready to resume talks and arrange a ministerial meeting “as soon as possible to declare the JCPOA restoration," Mr. Iravani said. “This is achievable if the U.S. demonstrates genuine political will … The U.S. now has the ball in its court.”

Speaking before Iravani, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said “the door to negotiations remains open” for a mutual U.S.-Iranian return to full implementation of the JCPOA. But he said, “Iran’s own actions and stances have been responsible for preventing that outcome.”

In September, a deal that all other parties had agreed to was “within reach” and “even Iran prepared to say yes," Mr. Wood said, “until at the last minute, Iran made new demands that were extraneous to the JCPOA and that it knew could not be met.”