Shafaq News- Tehran

Iran on Saturday warned Ukraine that its territory could become a “legitimate target” after Kyiv sent military experts to help Middle Eastern countries counter Iranian drones.

In a post on X, Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliamentary National Security Commission, accused Kyiv of entering the conflict by assisting Israel and its partners. Such involvement, he added, could allow Iran to invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes the right of self-defense.

Since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, Tehran has launched repeated drone and missile attacks on Israeli targets and US bases across the Middle East, including in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said several Middle Eastern countries had requested Kyiv’s expertise in intercepting such drones during large-scale attacks, adding that Ukraine had already dispatched expert teams to three countries.

While Kyiv has cited allegations that Tehran supplies drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine war to justify helping counter Iranian “drone threats” in the Middle East, Iranian officials have repeatedly denied the claims. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the accusations in a 2024 interview, while the late president Ebrahim Raisi said in 2023 that Iran opposed the conflict altogether.