Iran was "prepared" to launch attacks against three targets in Ukraine, according to one of the closest advisors to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. However, the operation would have been "canceled" after Kiev issued alleged "apologies" for the attack on an Iranian freighter in the Caspian Sea.
"We were ready to attack three points in Ukraine, but after the country's apologies, we canceled the attack," declared military advisor Mohsen Rezaei in an interview with Iranian state radio and television, IRIB.
In this intervention, the advisor appointed by Ali Khamenei --who died in U.S. attacks against Iran and was succeeded by his son Mojtabá Khamenei-- insisted that the Iranian government is not "inciting war," although he emphasized that its Armed Forces "are fully prepared and will defend Iran to the last breath."
His words come after Tehran accused Kiev of having attacked an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea on July 25, an incident in which a crew member died. "It will not go unpunished," warned then the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baqaei.
Subsequently, Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, conveyed to his Ukrainian counterpart, Andri Sibiga, that the Ukrainian government should financially compensate the Islamic Republic for the damages resulting from that attack, although for now the head of Ukrainian diplomacy has not taken public steps in that direction.
On the contrary, in recent days he has reproached Iran for "pretending to be a victim" when, in his view, it is "complicit" with Russia, in line with the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to connect the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran in several recent messages.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has carried out various attacks against ships near the Russian coast, including the freighter 'Omorfi', in a military operation in the Black Sea that resulted in the death of an Indian citizen. This prompted a formal protest from New Delhi, to which Sibiga responded in a phone conversation emphasizing that "the consequences of Russian aggression go far beyond the borders of Ukraine."