[🇮🇷] Iran's "Operation Truthful Promise - وعده صادق" on Israel : Live Coverage

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US announces new sanctions on Iran after missile strike on Israel

The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle production after its attack on Israel, and US President Joe Biden said G7 leaders were committed to acting together to increase economic pressure on Tehran. Biden said the United States and i

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

US announces new sanctions on Iran after missile strike on Israel
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 18, 2024 21:25
Updated :
Apr 18, 2024 21:25

Israel's military displays what they say is an Iranian ballistic missile which they retrieved from the Dead Sea after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, at Julis military base, in southern Israel April 16, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
I
The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle production after its attack on Israel, and US President Joe Biden said G7 leaders were committed to acting together to increase economic pressure on Tehran.

Biden said the United States and its allies had helped Israel beat back the April 13 missile and drone strike and were now holding Iran accountable with the new sanctions and export controls.

"The sanctions target leaders and entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's Defense Ministry, and the Iranian government's missile and drone programme that enabled this brazen assault," Biden said in a statement.

"And our allies and partners have or will issue additional sanctions and measures to restrict Iran's destabilising military programmes," Biden said.

A US Treasury Department statement said the US measures targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran's UAV production, including engine types that power Iran's Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack.

Treasury said it was also designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran's Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran's largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC's finished steel products.

Also targeted were three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which it said had materially supported Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The statement said the US Commerce Department was also imposing new controls to restrict Iran's access to technologies, such as basic commercial grade microelectronics.

Tehran says it carried out the April 13 attack in retaliation for a presumed Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus which killed two generals and several others on April 1. Israel has said it will retaliate, while a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" following Israeli threats.

Treasury said that concurrent with its action, Britain was imposing sanctions targeting several Iranian military organisations, individuals and entities involved in Iran's UAV and ballistic missile industries.

Britain said these sanctions included the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, according to an official notice.

"We're using Treasury's economic tools to degrade and disrupt key aspects of Iran's malign activity, including its UAV programme and the revenue the regime generates to support its terrorism," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.

"We will continue to deploy our sanctions authority to counter Iran with further actions in the days and weeks ahead."

The US statement came after finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven industrial democracies said after a meeting in Wednesday they would "ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran's ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support destabilising regional activities."

European Union leaders also decided on Wednesday to step up sanctions against Iran after Tehran's attack on Israel raised concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East.

 

[Saif]

What Iran and Israel would wield in a long-range air war

An Iranian drone is seen during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Iran's first direct attack on Israel on April 13 has brought renewed focus on their air-defence capabilities as Israeli leaders decide ho

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

What Iran and Israel would wield in a long-range air war
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 18, 2024 19:38
Updated :
Apr 18, 2024 19:38

An Iranian drone is seen during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2024. Photo : Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

An Iranian drone is seen during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran's first direct attack on Israel on April 13 has brought renewed focus on their air-defence capabilities as Israeli leaders decide how best to respond.

Below is a look at both countries' air forces and aerial defence systems:

IRAN

The Iranian air force has 37,000 personnel, but decades of international sanctions have largely cut the country off from the latest high-tech military equipment, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (IISS).

The air force only has a few dozen working strike aircraft, including Russian jets and ageing US models acquired before the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Tehran has a squadron of nine F-4 and F-5 fighter jets, one squadron of Russian-made Sukhoi-24 jets, and some MiG-29s, F7 and F14 aircraft, IISS said.

The Iranians also have pilotless planes designed to fly into targets and explode. Analysts believe this drone arsenal numbers in the low thousands. In addition, they say, Iran has more than 3,500 surface-to-surface missiles, some of which carry half-tonne warheads. The number capable of reaching Israel may be lower, however.

Iran's Air force Commander, Amir Vahedi, on Wednesday said the Sukhoi-24s, were in their "best state of preparedness" to counter any potential Israeli attack.

But Iran's dependence on Sukhoi-24s jets, first developed in the 1960s, shows the relative weakness of its air force.

For defence, Iran relies on a mixture of Russian and domestically produced surface-to-air missile and air defence systems.

Tehran received deliveries of the S-300 anti-aircraft system from Russia in 2016, which are long-range surface-to-air missile systems capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously, including aircraft and ballistic missiles.

Iran also has the domestically produced Bavar-373 surface-to-air missile platform, as well as the Sayyad and Raad defence systems.

Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at IISS, said: "If there was a major conflict between the two countries, Iran would probably concentrate on occasional successes. They don't have the comprehensive air defences that Israel has."

ISRAEL

Israel has an advanced, US-supplied air force with hundreds of F-15, F-16 and F-35 multipurpose jet fighters. These played a role in shooting down Iranian drones at the weekend.

The air force lacks long-range bombers, though a smaller fleet of repurposed Boeing 707s serve as refueling tankers that could enable its fighters to reach Iran for pinpoint sorties.

A pioneer in drone technology, Israel has Heron pilotless planes capable of flying for more than 30 hours, enough for far-flung operations. Its Delilah loitering munition has an estimated range of 250 km (155 miles) - far short of the Gulf, though the air force could close the gap by delivering one of the munitions closer to Iran's border.

Israel is widely believed to have developed long-range surface-to-surface missiles, but neither confirms nor denies this. In 2018, then-Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that the Israeli military would get a new "missile force". The military has not said where those plans now stand.

A multi-layer aerial defence system developed with US help after the 1991 Gulf war provides Israel will several additional options for shooting down long-range Iranian drones and missiles.

The highest-altitude system is Arrow-3, which intercepts ballistic missiles in space. An earlier model, Arrow-2, works at lower altitudes. The mid-range David's Sling counters ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, while the short-range Iron Dome tackles the kind of rockets and mortars used by Iranian-backed militias in Gaza and Lebanon - but can also, in theory, be fired at any more powerful missiles missed by Arrow or David's Sling.

The Israeli systems are designed to be patched into counterpart US interceptors in the region for coalition-strength defences.

"Israel's air defences performed well over the course of the (April 13) attack," said Sidharth Kausha, a research fellow at the Royal United Strategic Institute in London.

He noted that some of the incoming targets, particularly drones, were shot down by allied aircraft before they reached Israel, "which limited its degree of exposure to some threat types, and there appears to have been sufficient early warning to enable preparation of a coalition response which means the system was better prepared than it might have been if exposed to a similar attack with less early warning."​

 

[Saif]

Iranian commander says Tehran could review 'nuclear doctrine' amid Israeli threats

Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" following Israeli threats, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday, raising concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme which it has always said was strictly for peaceful purposes. Israel has said it will retaliate agains

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Iranian commander says Tehran could review 'nuclear doctrine' amid Israeli threats
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 18, 2024 19:03
Updated :
Apr 18, 2024 19:03

Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following the IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo

Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" following Israeli threats, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday, raising concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme which it has always said was strictly for peaceful purposes.

Israel has said it will retaliate against Iran's April 13 missile and drone attack, which Tehran says was carried out in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus earlier this month.

"The threats of the Zionist regime (Israel) against Iran's nuclear facilities make it possible to review our nuclear doctrine and deviate from our previous considerations," Ahmad Haghtalab, the Guards commander in charge of nuclear security, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has the last say on Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects has military purposes.

In 2021, Iran's then-intelligence minister said Western pressure could push Tehran to seek nuclear weapons, the development of which Khamenei banned in a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s.

"Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram (religiously forbidden) ... Although we have nuclear technology, Iran has firmly avoided it," Khamenei reiterated in 2019.

Iran's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"If the Zionist regime wants to take action against our nuclear centres and facilities, we will surely and categorically reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites," Haghtalab said.

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact has stalled since 2022. The accord, aimed at keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, required Tehran to accept restrictions on its nuclear programme and more extensive United Nations' inspections, in exchange for an end to UN, European Union and US sanctions.

The deal, which had capped Iran's uranium enrichment at 3.67 per cent, was abandoned in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump, who said it was too generous to Tehran.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said in February that Iran continued to enrich uranium at rates up to 60 per cent purity, which is far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use.​

 

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Iran fires air defence batteries in provinces as explosions heard near Isfahan

 

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[H1]Tehran plays down reported Israeli attacks, signals no retaliation[/H1]