Russia Attacks Ukraine Grain, Cities With Iranian Drones

Alireza Tangsiri advised regional states on Wednesday to avoid involvement in "divisive plans of extra-regional countries”.

The islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf have been a longstanding territorial dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

During the exercise, Tangsiri did not explicitly name any specific country but referred to a joint statement made last month by Russia and Arab countries in the Persian Gulf supporting the UAE's claims over the islands.

Tangsiri called the islands "the honor of the great nation of Iran" and vowed to protect the Islamic homeland's territorial integrity.

The ongoing exercise showcased the presence of a special unit and a "600 km long-range missile for defending the islands' territory".

However, the UAE considers Iran's sovereignty over these islands illegal, adding to the complexity of the territorial disputes which has become an international geopolitical issue.

Like China did in December, Russia signed a statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council in early July challenging Iran's ownership of three islands.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian recently expressed deep dissatisfaction with Moscow's explanations regarding the joint statement, Russia one of the regime’s closest allies.

The revival of the dispute comes amid the Iranian regime's efforts to strengthen its relations with the likes of UAE and Saudi Arabia under President Ebrahim Raisi's leadership.

The court's ruling, issued on Monday, entitles the family plaintiffs of eight PS752 passengers to default judgment on liability, with damages set at $142 million. Each victim's family will receive over $16 million in damages and an additional $1 million for the pain and suffering caused by the tragic attack.

The court case was initiated by six individuals representing eight families of the victims of the flight. Notably, a similar verdict in favor of several other victims' families was previously issued in a case known as “Zarei et al vs Islamic Republic of Iran et al.”

Flight PS752 was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 8, 2020. The attack occurred in the aftermath of the IRGC's missile strikes on Iraqi bases hosting US troops, conducted in retaliation for the killing of IRGC Quds Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani in a US drone strike just five days earlier.

Tragically, all 176 passengers and crew members, including 63 Canadians, 10 Swedes, and 82 Iranian citizens, lost their lives in the disaster.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that it is a “direct violation of UN Resolution 2231”. She revealed that Washington has requested the United Nations conduct an investigation into the matter.

In a statement to Iran International, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield emphasized the significance of the investigation, highlighting that any other instances of Iranian UAVs being used elsewhere should also be condemned as it constitutes a violation of Resolution 2231.

In June, Iran International wrote of the US government disclosures that Russia, with the assistance of the Islamic Republic, is in the process of establishing a UAV production center approximately 960 kilometers east of Moscow. If completed, the factory is expected to significantly alter the dynamics of the war in Ukraine.

According to analysts from the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the establishment of this factory will substantially increase Russia's stockpile of UAVs compared to the previous supplies received from Iran.

As per the analysis conducted by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Russia has received a total of 400 Shahed-131 and 136, and Mohajer drones from Iran, depleting Iran's stockpile completely.

While Iranian officials, including Ali Khamenei, have denied supplying arms to Russia for use in the Ukrainian conflict, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, made an announcement in early-June that Russia had acquired hundreds of new drones from Iran.

Kirby reiterated that Iran has also facilitated the establishment of the UAV factory in Russia, enabling them to produce Iranian UAVs as early as next year.

Referring to Iran's latest long-range missile, which has a range of 1,000 kilometers, Reza Talaei-Nik, the Spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, said: "The enemies should move away from the country's coasts within the range of the Abu Mahdi missile, and those who intend to create insecurity in the region should change their mind."

Thousands of Marines backed by advanced US fighter jets and warships are building up a greater presence in the Persian Gulf in the face of Iran's harassment of commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf.

The dispatch of the troop-and- the USS Bataan expeditionary unit to the region, alongside stealth F-35 fighters and other warplanes, has put the regime on the back foot.

Talaei-Nik warned that those who want to pose a threat should withdraw beyond the 1000-kilometer range of Abu Mahdi sea cruise missiles that "can evade radar."

The Abu Mahdi missile, made in Iran, can reach the entire Persian Gulf Sea, the Sea of Oman, and a portion of the Indian Ocean, according to Talaei-Nik.

Earlier Iran’s Defense Minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani hailed the addition of the Abu Mahdi missile to Iran's naval fleet claiming that the missile system's advanced artificial intelligence capabilities enables it to adeptly evade radar systems.

In an interview with Newsmax on Monday, he reiterated his policy on Iran, its most dangerous enemy in the Middle East, and said he will not be deterred by the Biden administration's efforts to restart a nuclear deal with Iran.

"Israel will do what it needs to do to defend itself by itself against the threat of Iran to annihilate it with nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told Rob Schmitt Tonight.

The Biden administration has been striving to bring the United States back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal that was previously abandoned under the Trump administration. Talks are also said to be addressing the release of some of the US citizens detained in Iran and unfreezing some Iranian assets. It has been met with fierce opposition on both sides of Congress and since the latest talks began in June, maritime tensions continue between the two arch-enemies in the Persian Gulf.

Netanyahu said of the ongoing US talks: "I think that any deal with Iran that doesn't set back Iran's nuclear infrastructure is basically not worth it because it means nothing ... They basically take what you give them, but they don't set back. They don't roll back the capacity to produce nuclear weapons or the components of nuclear weapons. So, you really get nothing for it. And my view hasn't changed."