White House: Iran 'Literally Helping' Putin Kill Innocent People In Ukraine

Washington D.C./07.09.23/Turan:  The White House said on Wednesday that it considers Iran, North Korea, China and Russia as "countries that want to challenge the rules-based order" which the U.S. and its allies built after WWII, engendered, and grew during the years of the Cold War and beyond," as National Security Council's John Kirby put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"This rules-based order respects the UN Charter, it respects sovereignty, it respects territorial integrity, and these are all nations that want to challenge that order," Kirby told reporters at the State Department's Washington Foreign Press Center.  "These are all nations that see in the U.S.particularly some sort of common enemy, and so we obviously are watching their budding relationships closely," he added. 

Kirby went on to elaborate: "That said, these are not nations who have (A) many friends, (B) any kind of network of alliances and partnerships the way the U.S.enjoys, and (C) a long history of working with each other and mutual trust and confidence the way the U.S. and our allies and partners have with one another."

In the meantime, Kirby refrained from labeling Russia and its allies as, as he put it, "a sort of new axis or a new alliance".

"Again, these are not nations that are known for working with others well, working with each other well, and have some sort of history of cooperation," he explained.

In Ukraine, he said, when other nations are looking for a transactional relationship with Russia, one doesn't have to look any further than the Iranian drones that continue to rain down on civilian infrastructure and residential buildings. "The Iranians are literally helping Mr. Putin kill innocent people in Ukraine," Kirby said.

He added:  "But that same transactional relationship could have repercussions and ramifications in the Middle East if Iran were to benefit from it by getting Russian military capabilities to add to their inventory and to their capabilities. So that would be a potential threat, a concern for our national security interests in the region as well as those of our allies and partners."

Alex Raufoglu