Iranian personnel have been on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea
- Iranian personnel have been on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea
- The United States says it will 'expose, deter and confront' Iran for its provision of munitions.
Iranian personnel have been on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea helping Moscow's forces conduct attacks on Ukraine with Iran-made drones, the White House said.
"We assess that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Mr Kirby said that the Iranians in Crimea were trainers and tech support workers, and that the Russians were piloting the drones, which have caused significant damage to Ukrainian infrastructure.
"Tehran is now directly engaged on the ground, and through the provision of weapons that are impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine," he said.
"The United States is going to pursue all means to expose, deter and confront Iran's provision of these munitions against the Ukrainian people."
"We're going to continue to vigorously enforce all US sanctions on both the Russian and Iranian arms trade," Mr Kirby added.
There was no immediate public reaction to the US allegations from Tehran. Russia's defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The disclosure marked a fresh point of tension between the United States and Iran, whose crackdown on protesters following the death in September of a woman who was arrested in Tehran for "inappropriate attire" has been condemned by President Joe Biden.
Mr Kirby indicated that the United States saw no need at this point to continue trying to negotiate with Tehran over Iran's return to the Iran nuclear deal with six world powers in 2015.
Mr Biden had sought a return to the deal to provide international monitoring of Iran's nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions against Tehran. the president's predecessor, Donald Trump, abandoned the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018.
"We are way far apart with the Iranians in terms of a return to the deal, so we are simply not focused on that right now. They had demands that were well in excess what the JCPOA was supposed to cover. We are not focused on the diplomacy at this point," he said.
Less than two months ago US officials reported some progress in reviving the deal.
The United States is now concerned that Russia may seek to acquire advanced conventional weapons from Iran such as surface-to-surface missiles for use against Ukraine, Mr Kirby said.
