DUBAI, November 18. /TASS/. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei placed responsibility for the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis on the United States and other Western countries.

“We have never been a party to the Ukrainian conflict. We are convinced that interference in the conflict by Western countries, particularly the United States, was one of the causes of its escalation. We insist on a settlement peaceful and diplomatic solution to the crisis by its parties. We call on external actors to stop fueling this confrontation,” he declared during a press briefing.

Since 2022, the United States and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for its alleged military supplies to Russia. Russian and Iranian authorities have repeatedly denied the allegations. The Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, criticized reports about Iran’s deliveries of ballistic missiles and drones to Russia, calling them false.