Politician Says Russia Didn’t Want Iran Deal Before Invasion Of Ukraine

A former senior Iranian lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, says the crimes of Russian President Vladimir Putin are covered up in Iran.

Falahatpisheh, the former chairman of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told Rouydad24 website on Monday that there could be legal action against Putin by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

He said Putin fears that if he can’t win the war, there will be a day when he and his commanders are put on trial by the Russians themselves, like what the Yugoslav people did to their political leaders.

Falahatpisheh said the prospect of this invasion is dark, because there is the ambition of a great dictator named Putin, adding that he has already played all the possible cards to keep himself in power, such as changing the constitution for lifelong rule.

He claimed that the mission of Moscow’s top negotiator in Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, was that no agreement would be signed before the invasion of Ukraine. Even after that Russians have demanded a US guarantee that Ukraine sanctions would not hurt trade with Tehran, something France calls blackmail.

Iran's top officials’ including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi have expressed support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine blaming the United States for the crisis while hundreds of Iranians on social media have been expressing anger at the invasion and criticizing the government’s position.