Key Points
Iran firmly rejects involvement in Ukraine conflict
Macron claims Russia uses Iranian military equipment
Diplomatic tensions escalate between Iran and Western nations
Russia warns against potential European troop deployment
The repetition of "such baseless and incorrect" accusations by French officials was irresponsible and indicated "their lack of seriousness in restoring peace and stability in Europe and the world," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei in a statement.
Baghaei emphasised that Iran is not involved in the Ukraine conflict and insists on its principled position of opposing war and ending the conflict through dialogue and diplomatic negotiations, Xinhua news agency reported.
In an address to his nation on Wednesday, Macron said, "Russia has already turned the Ukraine conflict into a global conflict," and claimed that it has used Iranian equipment.
Ukraine, along with several Western nations, has also accused Iran of supplying weapons to Russia for use in the ongoing conflict, while Iran has repeatedly rejected the accusations as "baseless."
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Russia would view the potential deployment of European troops to Ukraine as direct NATO involvement in the conflict.
Lavrov called the move a "direct, official and undisguised involvement of NATO countries in a war against the Russian Federation" and warned that the presence of such forces in Ukraine would be unacceptable to Moscow.
The remarks came after Macron announced Wednesday that he would consider sending European troops to Ukraine to enforce a peace deal, although he said the troops would not engage in frontline combat.
"This is a threat to Russia," said Lavrov, adding that Moscow sees "no room for compromise" on the issue of deploying European forces to Ukraine.
"This discussion is being conducted with an openly hostile objective," he said.
The foreign minister added that suspending US military aid to Ukraine could help end the conflict quickly.
