Iran rejects reports of weapons transfers to Russia as 'propaganda'

DUBAI (Reuters) -Reports of Iranian weapons transfers to Russia are "ugly propaganda" to conceal Western military support to Israel, Iran's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after Western powers said they would impose new sanctions on Tehran over the issue.

"The publication of false and misleading reports about the transfer of Iranian weapons to some countries is simply an ugly propaganda to conceal the large illegal arms support of the United States and some Western countries for the genocide in Gaza," foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a post on X, without mentioning the new sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and would likely use them in Ukraine within weeks, warning that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatened wider European security.

Alongside the United States, Britain, Germany and France said they would apply new sanctions on Iran, including measures against its national airline Iran Air.

London, Berlin and Paris also announced the cancellation of bilateral air services agreements with Tehran.

"This action by the three European countries is the continuation of the West's hostile policy and economic terrorism against the people of Iran, and it will face a proportionate response by Iran," Kanaani said in a later statement published on the foreign ministry's Telegram page.

Iran is already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, and some experts have questioned the impact of more economic penalties that might hurt the middle classes more than the country's leaders.

(Reporting by Dubai NewsroomEditing by Mark Potter and Rosalba O'Brien)