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Iran drew up plans to strike three targets in Ukraine in response to a deadly maritime attack, but aborted the operation following an apology from Kyiv, a senior adviser to the Iranian Supreme Leader said on August 3.
“We were prepared to attack three targets in Ukraine, but after the country apologized we canceled the attack,” Iranian state media quoted Mohsen Rezaei as saying.
The threat stems from a July 25 attack in the Caspian Sea, where Ukrainian forces struck an Iranian vessel, leaving one sailor dead and several others injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defended the action, stating at the time that the ship was carrying “military cargo” and citing Iran’s alleged military backing of Russia.
The strike provoked fierce pushback from Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attack as “hostile and criminal” and summoned Kyiv’s envoy to deliver a formal protest.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, claimed the strike was executed “at Israel’s behest” and cautioned that the move “cannot go unanswered.”
Echoing the aggressive stance, Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, warned back then that “any attack on Iran always comes with a cost” and stated Ukraine “may soon come to understand that Iran does not let actions go unanswered.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Iran’s warnings as “unjustified and groundless,” labeling the Iranian government a “direct accomplice to Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Tensions appeared to ease by July 28 after Araghchi confirmed that Sybiha provided personal assurances that the vessel strike was accidental and that Ukraine was not attempting to escalate the conflict. A New York Times report published the same day revealed that the standoff ultimately gave way to intense back-channel diplomacy.
Iran 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. While tensions with Ukraine have eased, any other provocation by Kyiv is certain to provoke a fierce response from Tehran.
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“we were prepared to attack three targets in ukraine, but after the country apologized we canceled the attack,” iranian state media quoted mohsen rezaei as saying”… please tell the world iran you will tear a new a$$**** if 0range j**liu$ and the p0llack “z” attack you again -with or without the apology?… cause we sure didn’t see an apology from the u.$. after they triple bombed your children!!!