Amid the ongoing and deeply unpopular war against Iran, foreign policy analyst Trita Parsi floated an ominous theory Monday suggesting that the United States could soon be dragged into a second war.

Parsi’s warning came just days after Iran’s Foreign Ministry claimed Ukraine had struck an Iranian shipping vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing one and injuring others. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukraine had carried out strikes in the Caspian Sea that included “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran.”

As to how Ukraine’s recent strikes could drag the United States into a second war, Parsi laid out his theory clearly in a statement published Monday on Substack.

“Ukraine is not trying to just enter the war with Iran. Rather, it appears it is trying to merge the Ukraine war with the Iran war,” Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote.

“Why? Because if these two wars merge, Ukraine will be a belligerent in the Iran war and America will be a belligerent in the Ukraine war. That is, the US will no longer just be arming Ukraine, but also actively and openly fighting Russia with US personnel.”

Furthermore, Parsi alleged that Zelenskyy had sought to pull the United States into a hot war with Russia “since 2022.” Similar allegations were floated in 2022 after Zelenskyy pressed NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s request was denied, with then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warning that doing so could spark “a full-fledged war in Europe.”

“The only way to implement a no-fly zone is to send Nato fighter planes into Ukraine’s airspace, and then impose that no-fly zone by shooting down Russian planes,” Stoltenberg said at the time.

Zelenskyy lashed out at NATO after it had rejected its request, accusing NATO leadership of having given “the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages.”