Iran threatens response to Ukraine attack on its ship in Caspian Sea

TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday warned that his country would respond to a deadly attack by Ukraine on an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea.

It came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had carried out long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea against vessels transporting military cargo involving Iran, underscoring the increasingly international dimensions of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Zelenskyy has attacked an Iranian commercial vessel, killing a sailor,” Araghchi said on X, describing it as “a blatant UN Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war”.

He added that, during calls with the European Union’s Kaja Kallas and Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov, he “made clear that what the freeloader in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED”.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the 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 said in a statement.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media that armed forces had achieved “very strong results with long?range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship”.

Ukraine’s intelligence services, for their part, reported on Telegram that drone attacks had been carried out against “cargo vessels under international sanctions that were used to transport military cargo between Iran and Russia”.

According to Iranian state television, the foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian charge d’affaires in Tehran on Saturday to protest this “hostile and criminal act”.