The West formerly paid little attention to Tehran’s missile and drone technologies but now concedes that they are very dangerous and complains about Iran giving them to “so-and-so,” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a statement broadcasted on Wednesday.

According to the video reported by MEMRI, Khamenei’s remarks broadcasted by Iranian Channel 1 could be a reference to recent accusations that Russia is using Iranian-made “suicide drones” in Ukraine.

Khamenei further stated that the drones represent Iran’s pride.

Later in his speech, he said that global industrial usage of nuclear energy has expanded and that if Iran had not begun developing its nuclear project many years ago, it would have had to do so now and bear the repercussions of being far behind the rest of the world.