TEHRAN — When Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to social media in recent days to respond to Polish criticism of Tehran's alleged drone supplies to Russia, he hoped to project defiance. Yet the exchange has highlighted just how fragile Iran's European diplomacy has become amid the Ukraine conflict and its deepening military alignment with Moscow.
The row began after Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski publicly urged Tehran to halt drone and production license sales to Russia, accusing the Islamic Republic of aiding Moscow’s war in Ukraine. “It’s nice that Iran’s foreign minister writes in Polish,” Sikorski posted on X, “but it would have been better not to sell drones or licenses for their production to Russia during its aggression against Ukraine.” He added a sharp jab, suggesting that instead of “exporting the Islamic revolution and enriching uranium,” Iran should focus on “rebuilding the Persian civilization, which once astonished the world.”
Araghchi responded swiftly, posting in both Persian and Polish. He said that he had invited his Polish counterpart to exchange evidence-based documents on the issue. “Dodging accountability, repeating baseless claims and making interfering statements will not resolve the problem,” Araghchi wrote. He also invoked history to soften the confrontation, reminding Warsaw that during World War II, Iran sheltered more than 100,000 Polish refugees and helped establish a Polish army on its oil. “Individuals hostile to friendly relations between Iran and Europe,” he added, “are trying to create fabricated narratives that do not reflect historical ties, including those between Iran and Poland.”
The exchange, however, was about far more than historical sentiment. It came just days after a high-profile event inside the UK Parliament where US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) displayed what it claimed was an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone widely used by Russian forces in Ukraine. The exhibition, attended by British and Polish officials, angered Tehran. Araghchi denounced the event as a stunt staged by "the Israeli lobby and its sponsors," while accusing Western governments of "absurd performances" designed to further erode Iran's European relations.
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