The EU has strong reasons to doubt the word of Iranian authorities even though there is still no evidence Iran is supplying missiles to Russia, Portuguese Foreign Affairs Minister João Gomes Cravinho said on Monday.
“We have strong reasons to doubt the word of the Iranian authorities,” the Portuguese diplomatic chief said, speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the end of a meeting with his EU counterparts.
On the day that European foreign ministers adopted sanctions against 29 individuals and three entities following the repression in Iran and the sale of drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, Gomes Cravinho said: “We cannot base ourselves on what they tell us, we have to look at the evidence.”
When asked whether the EU has any evidence on the alleged supply of Iranian missiles to the Russian forces, the Portuguese leader said that “for the moment, there are no indications that missiles have been supplied from Iran to Russia.”
However, he said the EU already had “clear evidence” that Iran had supplied drones to Russia. Iran says that these drones, which it initially denied giving, were provided before the war. “We will see if this proves to be the case, and we have good reason to believe that this is not the case,” said Gomes Cravinho.
The issue will be back on the table at the meeting of EU heads of diplomacy in December.
(Ana Matos Neves | Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
