Iran claims scrapped plans to strike Ukraine
Tehran drew up plans to strike three targets in Ukraine after Ukrainian drones hit an Iranian tanker in the Caspian Sea, Mohsen Rezaee, a senior IRGC officer and member of the Expediency Discernment Council, told state broadcaster Press TV on Aug. 3.
The Islamic Republic of Iran had reportedly prepared to launch strikes against three strategic targets in Ukraine following Ukrainian drones attacking an Iranian tanker in the Caspian Sea, according to Mohsen Rezaee, a senior officer from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. Rezaee made this assertion on August 3 during a broadcast on Press TV.
In a phone conversation on July 28, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha reached out to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, assuring Tehran that Ukraine was keen on avoiding further escalation. Sybiha conveyed that the Ukrainian drones had targeted the Iranian tanker by mistake, and that the Iranian vessel was not the intended victim of the Ukrainian drone attack over the Caspian Sea.
This assurance came in response to Iran's initial accusation on July 25 that Ukraine had launched an attack on its commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, labeling it as an act of aggression and alleging that Kyiv was attempting to expand the conflict beyond Ukraine's borders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing the incident, claimed that the long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea had yielded "very good results," specifically mentioning ships carrying military cargo linked to Iran. Zelenskyy also commented on the broader geopolitical context, stating that Iran and North Korea were already participating in the war against Ukraine by supplying Russia with weapons, military technology, and other support.
Written by urgent.news from New Voice of Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
