Tehran has stressed that its commercial vessel hit by a Ukrainian drone in the Caspian Sea on Saturday was carrying only civilian cargo and vowed to respond appropriately while holding Kyiv responsible for the attack.
Iran's Ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, strongly condemned the strike as a "criminal act", saying the vessel was entirely commercial and carried no military cargo, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
"It is justified to expect that Russia will retaliate the fatal attack because it happened when the merchant ship was in Russia’s territorial waters," the envoy said, urging the Kremlin to respond.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that, during discussions with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, he stressed that the strike, which claimed the life of an Iranian sailor, "cannot remain unanswered."
Meanwhile, the Iranian Embassy in Poland issued a formal warning to the Ukrainian leadership, saying Tehran reserves the right to respond under the United Nations Charter, according to the WANA news agency.
In a statement addressed to Ukraine's president, the mission accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of attempting to "drag Europe and NATO into a military conflict with Iran".
"Tehran’s restraint is not endless," it warned, accusing the Ukrainian president of exceeding his authority by arming Iran's adversaries during and in the aftermath of the 40-day Israeli-U.S. war against the Islamic Republic.
In Tehran, Deputy Parliament Speaker Hamidreza Hajibabaei warned what he described as Ukraine's "taskmasters" that any mischief by their so-called "contractor" in the Caspian basin would trigger a "painful" response from the Iranian nation.
IRNA reported that the senior MP delivered the warning to Ukraine and the countries he said had "incited" Kyiv to carry out the attack during a parliamentary session on Monday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei described the attack as "illegitimate and contrary to the UN Charter and international accords", rejecting Kyiv's claim that Tehran is linked to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, he added that other Caspian littoral states had expressed deep concern and said Tehran had made clear to Kyiv that it would respond appropriately.
Turkmenistan said Ukraine's attack on an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea was unacceptable, stressing that the world's largest lake is a sea of peace and good neighbourliness.
"On 25 July 2026, reports were published in the international mass media concerning the attack on a sea-going vessel in the waters of the Caspian Sea. In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan declares about the inadmissibility of such actions," the ministry said in a statement.
"As a Caspian littoral state and the country with a status of permanent neutrality recognised by the United Nations, Turkmenistan underlines that the Caspian Sea is a sea of peace, harmony and good neighbourliness," the statement said.
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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the United States must recognise that the “rules of the game” in its war against Iran had changed “before it is too late”, a day after Washington struck several Iranian tankers in the Gulf.
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U.S. special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday on efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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