Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi observed as he addressed the press in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 4, 2024. — Reuters
– Araghchi announces that the attack on a Ukrainian vessel has resulted in the death of an Iranian sailor.
– Iran states that the assault on the ship violates the UN Charter.
– Iran has summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in response to the vessel attack.
TEHRAN — Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi issued a warning Sunday that his country will respond to a fatal Ukrainian assault on an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea.
Following Ukraine’s claims that Kyiv conducted long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea targeting vessels carrying military cargo connected to Iran—highlighting the expanding international scope of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine—Araghchi criticized the attack.
“Zelensky has attacked an Iranian commercial vessel, killing one sailor,” he posted on X, calling it “a gross violation of the UN Charter, carried out at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.”
He added that, in conversations with the European Union’s Kaja Kallas and Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov, he had made it clear that what Kyiv did “cannot go unanswered.”
The Iranian foreign ministry reported that the attack caused the vessel to explode, resulting in the death of one sailor and injuries to several others.
The ministry also asserted that Iran has “never intervened” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
On Saturday, President Zelensky announced on social media that Ukraine’s armed forces had achieved “significant results with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea — including targeting vessels used for military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship.”
Ukrainian intelligence claimed, via Telegram, that drone attacks targeted “cargo ships under international sanctions used to transport military supplies between Iran and Russia.”
Iranian state television reported that the foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in Tehran on Saturday to protest what it described as a “hostile and criminal act.”