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Senior military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Mohsen Rezaee, said that Tehran was prepared to launch strikes on targets inside Ukraine following an attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, but suspended the planned operation after Kyiv claimed the incident had been "a mistake."
Senior adviser Mohsen Rezaee, who is also a former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), made the remarks on Monday during a televised interview, saying Tehran had readied retaliatory action on three targets in Ukraine before deciding to pause. "We were ready to attack three areas in Ukraine," Rezaee said, as quoted by Iranian state media Press TV, in reference to the Ukrainian strike on an Iranian vessel. Rezaee further stated that Tehran paused its planned retaliation to assess Kyiv's explanation but maintained that compensation for the incident remained necessary. "But after they claimed it was a mistake, we halted our response to examine their claim. Even if it was a mistake, it still requires compensation," he added, as quoted by Press TV. This comes after Ukraine struck an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea on July 25, which claimed the life of one crew member, with Kyiv clarifying that the strike was "unintentional". On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran was "waiting to see" whether Ukraine would take concrete steps to back its claim that the July 25 drone strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea had been unintentional. Responding to an ISNA question on whether Kyiv's explanations had convinced Tehran following the strike and a phone call between the two countries' foreign ministers, Baghaei said Ukrainian officials had maintained that the strike was not intentional. "Ukrainian officials, both in direct contact with the foreign minister and in the messages they sent to us, emphasised that this action was unintentional," Baghaei said. (ANI)
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