Iran hawks still skeptical as Blinken unveils sanctions for Tehran’s ballistic missile sales to Russia

The Biden administration rolled out another round of sanctions this week targeting the military partnership between Iran and Russia, the latter of which has relied upon Tehran to provide equipment to supply its stagnating invasion of Ukraine.

But some on Capitol Hill remained skeptical that the new measures — which mirror a number of largely similar actions taken over the past several years — will do much to halt the Iranian weapons trade with Moscow.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in the UK at a press conference alongside foreign minister David Lammy that Russia had recently acquired new ballistic missiles from Iran and would likely use them in the war against Ukraine in the coming weeks. The US, he said, would repond with a round of sanctions, while a number of European countries including the UK would announce their own measures.

“Dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the FATH-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles. Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine,” said the US secretary.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during a visit to London, said Iran had ignored warnings that the transfer of weapons to Russia would be a profound escalation of the conflict.

“Now, to wage its war of aggression on… pic.twitter.com/XV97UQurCm

UK officials announced their own round of sanctions while also halting all flights to Iran.

There was a somewhat muted reaction on Capitol Hill, however, as the actions were seen as part of a long line of sanctions and threats which have, in the long run, had mixed