US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States would impose ‘major’ new sanctions on Iran in two days — a move sure to exacerbate tensions with the Islamic republic inflamed by the downing of a US spy plane.
The U.S. launched a sweeping cyberattack against the Iranian military last week in direct response to Iran’s downing of an American surveillance drone, U.S. officials told the Associated Press over the weekend, confirming that President Trump personally approved the retaliatory measures.
The Pentagon released a map Thursday indicating that the U.S. drone shot down by Iran was over international waters and not over Iran, contrary to what Iranian officials maintain.
The US military made preparations Thursday night for limited strikes on Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US surveillance drone, but approval was abruptly withdrawn before the attacks were launched, a US official said.
Talk of war with Iran is drowning out President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring peace to another part of the Middle East.
In technical terms, the drone that Iran shot down was a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D) aircraft, which is a Navy version of the Air Force’s high-flying RQ-4A Global Hawk. In simple terms, it is an unmanned aircraft that is intended for surveillance at sea.
Russia and China are concocting a plan to circumvent US sanctions on Iran.
Iran is seeking to build a ‘land bridge’ to extend the reach of its influence all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, and ‘disrupting’ this corridor should be a priority of the United States, a paper published on Tuesday by the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank said.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a US ‘spy’ drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, which is on the Gulf, the Guards’ news website Sepah News said on Thursday.
The latest deployment of 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East, which was announced on Monday, will include a Patriot missile battalion, manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft and ‘other deterrence capabilities,’ the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The U.S. Senate will vote on June 20 on legislation seeking to block $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies, as lawmakers’ anger with Riyadh increases.
Israel is holding its first drills with US-purchased F-35 fighter jets this week, in a large-scale exercise designed to simulate a war with northern adversaries Hezbollah, Syria, and Russia.
China is seeking to deter the US from its current Iran policy, Reuters reports.
A squadron of American F-15E Strike Eagles arrived in United Arab Emirates on Thursday as part of reinforcements against the Iranian threat as announced last month by the Pentagon.
Iranian missiles are capable of carrying out precision strikes on aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said Tuesday in an interview with Iranian state television.
Next week’s meeting in Jerusalem between the national security advisers of Israel, the United States, and Russia is ‘very important for the stability of the Middle East during these turbulent times,’ said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is not seeking conflict with Iran and its military buildup in the Persian Gulf is aimed entirely at deterring Iranian aggression and threats to US interests and international shipping, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
While few expect the advisors’ meeting this month in Jerusalem to produce immediate results, American and Israeli officials hope that it could prepare the ground for a deal that would further weaken Russian ties to Iran and reduce, if not terminate, Iran’s presence in Syria.
Iran will not hesitate from stepping up its uranium enrichment to 20%, an Iranian nuclear spokesperson said Monday.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released new images Monday showing the aftermath of mine attacks against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, including some images purporting to show Iranian forces removing an unexploded device from the hull of one of the vessels.