Ukraine Downs 16 Iran-Made Drones In Friday Russian Air Attack

In a statement released on Thursday, the US President called Netanyahu “my friend for decades” and said he looks forward “to working with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been my friend for decades, to jointly address the many challenges and opportunities facing Israel and the Middle East region, including threats from Iran.“

Netanyahu who always opposed the Obama-era nuclear accord with Iran known as JCPOA was a close ally of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump and opposed Biden’s policy to negotiate with Tehran to revive the deal. Trump abandoned the agreement in 2018 demanding more concession by Iran.

However, Biden’s diplomatic effort came to a standstill last August, and since then Iran has been supplying suicide drones to Russia to attack Ukraine and has killed hundreds of antigovernment protesters. Both the United States and its European allies say that resuming the nuclear talk sis not their priority in the current situation.

Biden also praised more integration in the Middle East, calling it a „more hopeful vision of a region at peace, including between Israelis and Palestinians.“ This is an endorsement of the 2020 Abraham Accords that established full ties between Israel and four Arab states. Reports in recent days indicate Netanyahu is hopeful to also establish relations with Saudi Arabia.

Military cooperation between Israel and several Arab states is also expanding aimed mainly at containing the Iranian threat.

Moscow fired 69 cruise missiles and an undetermined number of Iranian suicide drones. Ukrainian officials said that they had shot down 11 Iranian-made drones and most of the missiles.

Observers were anticipating a large-scale Russia missile attack to disrupt electricity and water for Ukrainians on New Year eve, but Ukraine’s air defenses have substantially improved, and the damage Thursday seemed to be manageable.

Iran’s delivery of hundreds of Shahed-131 and 136 drones to Russia has enraged the West that is assisting Ukraine to resist Moscow’s invasion. Western officials have been citing Iran’s weapons deliveries as one reason why they are not inclined to continue nuclear talks with Tehran.

Iran has claimed that it delivered the drones before the war, but it has not clearly denied their use in attacking Ukraine.

The United States is scrambling to try to "choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones” as US forces help “Ukraine’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch…,” according to a source that spoke with the New York Times.

Russia’s missile and drone attacks started in September targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure after its military campaign began to unravel. So far Ukraine has shot down 430 drones Russia has used in conjunction with the missile barrages. Most of these drones are believed to have been Iranian made.

A 2,000-word New York Times story published December 28 was based on un-named United States officials proclaiming Iran and Russia to be “building a new alliance of convenience.” This had prompted an “expanding US program…to choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones” as US forces help “Ukraine’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch…”

But the day before the Times outlined the “breath of the [US] effort,” the Jerusalem Post was more sanguine. “No matter how many Iranian drones Russia has access to, it can’t defeat Ukraine,” it noted. With the vast majority of the drones used by Russia easily shot down, “big army formations like tanks, infantry and artillery, still decide wars,” the Post observed.

The newspaper also conceded that while Iran had developed drones due to its lack of an effective air-force in the face of international sanction, Israel, whose advanced US-supplied aircraft include F35s, was “one of the world’s leaders in drone technology.”

‘An important tool’

Both the Ukraine war and a trumpeted ‘Iranian threat’ are boosting Israel’s weapons sales, including to disillusioned customers of Russia, as its arms exports reached a record $11.3 billion in 2022. “Iran…is suddenly sending drones to Russia, and is forming a military and security alliance with Russia…the war is helping Israel in that sense…as a by-product Israel is increasing its share of the arms market,” Yossi Melman, Haaretz Intelligence correspondence, told Voice of America December 22.

“Iranian military technology is seen as an important tool against the growing threat of Iranian military power – ­­the concern about Iran is shared by both European and Middle Eastern countries,” VOA said.

But while Iran’s supply of drones to Russia – and Tehran claims these were sent before the current phase of conflict began February – has helped Israel’s arms sales, the US has been less successful, the New York Times reported, in hampering Iran’s drone industry given the expertise developed by Iran over many years evading American sanctions and surveillance. This was, the Times said, “proving as difficult as the decades-old drive to deprive Iran of the components needed to build the delicate centrifuges it uses to enrich near-bomb-grade uranium.”

Israeli expertise in “undermining Iran’s nuclear program” could help over Iran’s drone exports, the paper suggested: “In the effort to stop the drone attacks,” the Times said, “Mr Biden’s [President Joe Biden] aides are also engaging an ally with a long history of undermining Iran’s nuclear program: Israel.”

The Times referred to a recent video meeting between Jake Sullivan with Israel’s top national security, military and intelligence officials – which came as talk increases in Israel of a military attack on Iran and as Benjamin Netanyahu returns to power with the support of ultra-Zionists. “The fact that the administration chose to highlight the discussion…was notable,” the Times observed.

Nearly three years after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down Flight PS752 shortly after takeoff from Tehran with two surface-to-air missiles, the four countries have urged Iran to agree to arbitration as Tehran has stonewalled over an independent investigation and proper compensation.

All 176 people onboard died in the January 8, 2020 incident, with dozens of Canadians among them.

The International Coordination and Response Group representing the affected countries issued a joint statement Wednesday to hold Iran accountable.

“We have requested that Iran submits to binding arbitration of the dispute related to the downing of Flight PS752…pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation of 1971.”

The convention requires all signatories to prohibit, prevent and punish certain the unlawful and intentional destruction of an aircraft in service.

The four countries as well as Iran are parties to the convention which was signed in Montreal in 1971.

If they cannot come to an agreement upon arbitration within six months, the case can be taken to the International Court of Justice.

In May 2021, some family members also filed a civil lawsuit against the government and senior officials they believe were to blame for the incident. Canada’s Ontario Court ruled that the downing of the plane was an intentional act of terrorism.

“Every week we see Iranian drones over our heads destroying our buildings and civil infrastructure like electricity stations, leaving millions of people without power. It's terrorism and genocide of civilians," Yulia Klymenko, a senior Ukrainian MP told Iran International Tuesday.

The United Nations is investigating the origins of the downed drones in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Reuters quoted Secretary General Antonio Guterres as saying that any findings would be reported to the Security Council “as appropriate, in due course.”

Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying 1700 Shahed-136 loitering munitions to Moscow, which it says have been used to hit targets in Ukraine since September. Iran denies the allegations.

Klymenko said the loss of electricity and heating caused by the drone attacks is affecting millions including women and children. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that nearly nine million Ukrainians are left without electricity as of December 26.

Expressing disappointment over Tehran's support for Moscow inthe war against Ukraine, Klymenko stressed that PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky has clearly condemned Iran's involvement in the Ukraine war.

A top Ukrainian official, presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak, on Saturday called for the “liquidation” of Iranian factories making drones and missiles, as well as the arrest of their suppliers. Such remarks have “political and legal consequences,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, said Monday in response without further elaboration.