Jake’s fake take: US NSA lied about Iranian drones for Russia

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s bluff about an Iran-Russia deal for “hundreds” of drones was nailed by none other than US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

On July 11, Sullivan claimed that Iran was preparing to sell hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including weapons-capable drones, to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

For days thereafter, this bit of fake news continued to be disseminated, amplified, embellished and padded with more ‘information’ to impress how dangerous the deal was. Satellite images of Russians at an Iranian airfield were put out to buttress the fake news. Sullivan kept up the bluff by repeating it, on July 16, when US President Joe Biden was in Saudi Arabia for his West Asia summit. Biden’s four-day trip was to rally Arab leaders against Iran by showing it to be Russia’s collaborator in its war against Ukraine.

But eventually, Biden’s summit turned out to be a flop show. There were no takers for the US president’s proposals. Biden’s failure to make any headway on his visit or bind a clutch of leaders against Tehran led to a revival of the talks on the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), which the US under Donald Trump had jettisoned.

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The absence of any takers for the fake news eventually made the White House declare, on July 29, that the US has no evidence of an Iran-Russia deal for drones. It noted that “no signs of purchase” have been observed, even weeks after Sullivan’s claim.

Kirby did the backtracking in a bid to undo the damage caused by this intelligence media stunt. He said that the White House has not seen any deal “that has been actually affected”. And, for good measure, added: “We’ve seen no indications of any sort of actual delivery and/or purchase of Iranian drones by the Russian Ministry of Defence.”

The author is an Editorial Consultant, WION TV.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

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