File image.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on July 26 vowed to respond against Ukraine for a deadly attack on a commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea that the minister claimed was carried out “at Israel’s behest.”
In a statement, the foreign ministry of the Islamic Republic said the “hostile and criminal” attack caused the ship “to explode, killing one sailor and injuring several others.” The Islamic Republic “has never intervened in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” the ministry added.
According to state media, the ministry also summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to convey its protest of the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the attack that Kyiv struck “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran” in the Caspian Sea.
Israel’s Channel 12 later reported that the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel informed it that the vessels were transporting Iranian weapons to Russia to aid it in its war on Ukraine.
Araghchi, in a post on X, said the “freeloader” Zelensky had “attacked an Iranian commercial vessel, killing a sailor. A blatant United Nations Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.”
The minister added that, in calls with his European Union counterpart Kaja Kallas and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the Iranian foreign minister “made clear that what the freeloader in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED.”
Araghchi’s warning was echoed by a senior Iranian lawmaker, who said Ukraine could face retaliation for the deadly attack in the Caspian Sea.
Ebrahim Azizi, the head of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said in a post on X that the United States and Israel were well aware that “any attack on Iran always comes with a cost, and that remains true today.” He added that “Ukraine, too, may soon come to understand that Iran does not let actions go unanswered.”
“The list of those who have miscalculated continues to increase!” Azizi concluded.
Iran’s latest warnings indicate that the Islamic Republic will indeed respond. This is unsurprising, considering that Tehran has long maintained a policy of responding directly to attacks on its territory or people — a stance that has never been limited to its conflict with the U.S. and Israel.
Iran already has missiles and drones capable of reaching Ukrainian territory. In cease of a direct strike, Black Sea ports are the most likely targets. The Islamic Republic could also attempt to target Ukrainian commercial vessels sailing near its waters, in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman.
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if mother russia does not have cujones to strike the nazis hard, mother persia will