Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the parliament, wrote on X that Abbas Araqchi, instead of expelling the chargé d’affaires of the Ukrainian embassy, responded to the foreign minister’s call of that country and “claims, in defense of the interests of the alleged aggressor, that the attack on an Iranian ship was not intentional.”

He added: “This is while Zelensky has officially accepted responsibility for a deliberate attack against the Islamic Republic. Nothing could be cleaner than humiliating the Islamic Republic like this.”

Previously, Araqchi had written on X: “The foreign minister of Ukraine assured me that the attack on an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea was not intentional and that Ukraine is not seeking to escalate tensions.”