Iran Denies UK Media Claim of Missile Transfer to Russia

Iran’s diplomatic mission in London said in a post on its X social media account on Friday: “Sky News claims Iran transferred missiles to Russia via the Port Olya 3 ship based solely on a satellite image!”

No evidence of missiles being loaded or unloaded, and the location isn’t even specified. This isn’t journalism, it’s speculative fiction,” the mission wrote.

The TV news channel claimed in a report on Wednesday that satellite imagery had captured a Russian-flagged cargo ship suspected of transporting ballistic missiles from Iran docked at a port in Russia a week ago.

Citing a Ukrainian source, Sky News claimed that the Port Olya 3 vessel had shipped “around 220 short-range ballistic missiles via the Caspian Sea to Russia” to be used for the war in Ukraine.

In a related development on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani also condemned the statement of the High Representative of the European Union that accused the Islamic Republic of interference in the Ukraine conflict.

A day earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned heads of the British, French, Dutch and German embassies to Tehran to protest “unconstructive remarks” by European officials regarding claims of Tehran’s meddling in the protracted war.

The US, UK, France and Germany have already slapped their own sanctions on Iran over the allegations, despite Iran’s denial.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany – known as the E3 – issued a statement against what they alleged was “Iran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles.”

They also decided to “cancel bilateral air services agreements with Iran” and announced that they would work towards imposing sanctions against Iran Air, the country’s national airliner.

On Tuesday, the US Treasury and the State Department imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and nine entities based in Iran and Russia.

Included in the sanctions were ships that regularly bring cargo across the Caspian Sea between Iran and Russia, the Treasury said.