TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2023) The Iranian side will not let the attack on the Defense Ministry's facility in Isfahan go unanswered, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, has told Sputnik.
On Saturday night, an explosion occurred in Isfahan's northern neighborhood. Authorities said that three mini-drones attacked one of the military enterprises of the Iranian Defense Ministry in the city, and one of them was successfully shot down by the air defense systems. No casualties were reported. The same night, an explosion and subsequent fire occurred at an industrial oil production plant in the city of Azarshahr in northwestern Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, that Israel was behind the drone attack. Similar assumptions were voiced by an Iranian official, cited by the Al Jazeera broadcaster.
On Sunday, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted in a tweet that the recent attack on the Iranian defense facility in Isfahan and the explosion at the Azarshahr factory complex may be consequences of Tehran's support for Russia, writing: "(Ukraine) did warn you."
"The attack on Isfahan will not go unanswered," Meshkini said when asked whether Iran will respond to Podolyak's statement about Kiev's alleged involvement in the attack.
The lawmaker added that Kiev now does not allow itself to make more blatant actions against Iran as it knows what kind of response it will get from Tehran.
"They are very afraid. Because we do not joke with anyone," Meshkini said.
"In our opinion, they have said nothing unexpected. It is no surprise to us that the Ukrainian government is taking such a position because it simply has to take a position that is consonant with the hegemony of the West," the lawmaker said.
When asked whose side Tehran could take in a possible conflict with Kiev, Meshkini said that "the era of Western domination is over;" therefore, Tehran "will definitely not side with the Western world."
Western countries claim that Iran supplies military drones to Russia for its military operation in Ukraine. Moscow and Tehran reject such allegations.
