US Not Interested In Ending Ukraine’s War- Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says “the United States is not interested in putting an end to the war in Ukraine, which he maintains the Western military alliance created.”

“The US actually started the Ukraine war,” he said during a speech on Tuesday in Mashhad. “The US created the grounds for this war to expand NATO in the east.”

“Now, it is also the US that benefits the most from the Ukraine war,” Khamenei said. “The poor people in Ukraine are facing problems, and weapons manufacturing companies in the US are reaping the benefits, so they won’t go along with ending the war.”

The supreme leader emphasised Tehran’s position that it has had no participation in the war, ‘denying Western claims’ that Iran has supplied armed drones that Russia has used in the conflict.

Western governments in recent months have imposed many rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities and officials based on allegations of arming Russia.

Khamenei had told Vladimir Putin during a trip to Tehran in July that NATO would have started the war if the Russian president “not taken the initiative.”

The Iranian leader spoke on Tuesday as Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Moscow to hold talks with Putin. Xi has proposed a political settlement to the yearlong war.

Aljazeera /Shakirat Sadiq