TEHRAN – Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, rejects a report by the Wall Street Journal that Iran and Russia are planning to build an Iranian-designed drone facility in Russia.

“The news that Iran and Russia are pressing ahead with plans to build a drone factory in Russia is completely untrue,” Kanaani said in exclusive remarks to the Tehran Times. 

Citing officials from a country aligned with the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that “Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations.”

Kanaani said this kind of reporting is propaganda that aims to portray Iran as a party to the war in Ukraine. 

“Iran is not interfering in the Ukraine war and is not siding with any party,” the spokesman told the Tehran Times. 

He made the remarks in an interview he gave to the Tehran Times during his visit to the Tehran Times’ newsroom on Monday. The full text of the interview will be published soon.