Iran called off Ukraine strikes after Kiev’s ‘apology’ – Khamenei adviser
Iran called off retaliatory strikes against Ukraine over last month’s attack on a cargo ship in the Caspian Sea after Kiev apologized, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said.
On July 25, Ukraine struck the Iranian vessel with drones, killing one sailor, and claimed that it was transporting military equipment to Russia. Iran said the ship was carrying civilian cargo and denounced the attack as an act of aggression. Russia identified the vessel as the dry cargo ship Ana.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohsen Rezaee said on Monday that Tehran had selected targets in Ukraine. “We were set to strike three sites in Ukraine, but canceled the attack following Ukraine’s apology,” Rezaee said, as quoted by Press TV.
According to Fars, Rezaee said Kiev had claimed that it attacked the ship by mistake and that Iran had decided to investigate the claim. “Even if it was a mistake, however, there will still be consequences,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier that his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrey Sibiga, had assured him during a phone call that the attack on the ship “was unintentional and Ukraine seeks no escalation.” Araghchi demanded compensation for the incident.
Sibiga initially dismissed Iran’s threats of retaliation as “unjustified and groundless,” but later struck a conciliatory tone, saying that Kiev had “never intended to target civilian vessels or people.”
Russia described the attack on the ship as illegal under international law and accused Ukraine of attempting to “expand the geography of its terrorist activities.”
Iran has denied providing military aid to Russia apart from supplying a “small number” of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022. Moscow has insisted that all its Geran-2 drones, believed to be modeled on the Shahed-136, were produced domestically. Russia has also denied sending weapons to Iran during the US-Israeli bombing campaign against the country.
