said earlier this month<\/a> that the Wagner Group was preparing to supply the Pantsir-S1, a Russian self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and missile system known as SA-22 by NATO.<\/p>\nWagner, which is funded by the Kremlin, has been brought back into line after a failed mutiny in June that presented the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s two-decade rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are certainly prepared to use our counterterrorism sanctions authorities against Russian individuals or entities that might make these destabilizing transfers,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n
He added that Iran was \u201cconsidering providing Russia with ballistic missiles now for use in Ukraine in return for that support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington has been warning of deepening military relations between Moscow and Tehran \u2014 a burgeoning relationship that Kirby described as \u201cobviously harmful to Ukraine, certainly harmful to Iran\u2019s neighbors, quite frankly harmful to the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Choigou paid an official visit to Iran in September, described as an \u201cimportant step\u201d for military cooperation between the allies. Both countries are subject to international trade sanctions and have forged close ties in a number of sectors.<\/p>\n
Kirby also said that the US is considering re-designating the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen as a terror organization following the group\u2019s hijacking of an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea and the series of missile attacks it has launched at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden removed the Houthis\u2019 terror designation shortly after entering the White House amid pressure from rights groups who said it was inhibiting efforts to supply aid to civilians in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Discussing the Houthis, Kirby told reporters Tuesday that \u201cin light of\u2026 the piracy of a ship in international waters, we have begun a review of potential terrorist designations and we\u2019ll be considering other options together with our allies and partners as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader is operated by a Japanese firm but has links to Israeli businessman Abraham \u201cRami\u201d Ungar.<\/p>\n
Kirby called on the rebels to \u201crelease that ship immediately \u2014 as well as the crew \u2014 and unconditionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Houthis have declared themselves part of the \u201caxis of resistance\u201d of Iran\u2019s allies and proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and have also launched a series of drones and missiles toward Israel.<\/p>\n
Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia is reportedly planning to use the Wagner Group as an intermediary with which to supply advanced air defence weapons to Hezbollah or Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276308,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276305\/revisions\/276308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}