Iran reportedly considered attacking a Ukrainian seaport in the Black Sea in response to a Ukrainian strike on an Iranian ship, but in a “flurry of diplomacy,” opted not to, Iranian and Western officials told The New York Times on Tuesday.
People with knowledge of the matter expected Iran to fire a ballistic missile with a small warhead at Ukraine as a show of strength, the NYT reported. This would have constituted a major escalation and risked opening a new warfront, given Iran’s alliance with Russia.
Zelensky: Ukrainian long-range strikes hit Russian warship, vessels transporting Iran-linked cargo
Ukraine’s forces struck a Russian warship, and vessels used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea should be considered an assault on Iran itself and showed how important it was to eliminate what it said was the threat from Kyiv.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Ukrainian attack, saying it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.
Kremlin accuses Ukraine of ‘terrorist attacks’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday accused Ukraine of widening the geographical scope of what he called “terrorist attacks.”
Peskov accused Kyiv of blowing up Germany’s Nord Stream pipelines – something it denies – and of hurting Kazakhstan’s interests by targeting CPC Pipeline Infrastructure.
“This threat must be neutralized and definitively destroyed,” Peskov said.
