LONDON: The UK on Thursday joined the United States and Canada in announcing a fresh set of sanctions against Iran’s drone and missile industries after its recent attack on Israel.
Tehran launched its first direct military assault on Israeli territory in retaliation for an April 1 air strike — widely blamed on Israel — that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus.
Iran’s large-scale attack involved more than 300 drones and missiles, most of which were shot down by Israel and its allies including Washington and London, causing little damage.
The United States and Britain announced widespread sanctions on Iran last week, targeting individuals and companies involved in the Iranian drone industry.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said the latest sanctions would target two individuals and four companies closely involved in Iran’s network of drone production.
Trade sanctions against Iran would also be expanded by introducing new bans on the export of components used in its produce of drones and missiles, it added.
“The Iranian regime’s dangerous attack on Israel risked thousands of civilian casualties and wider escalation in the region,” Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement.
“Alongside our partners, we will continue to tighten the net on Iran’s ability to develop and export these deadly weapons.”
The UK already has over 400 sanctions imposed on Iran, including designations against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety and many of those responsible for the attack on Israel.
The US Treasury Department also targeted Iran’s military drone program on Thursday, sanctioning more than a dozen individuals, companies and ships it said played a key role in “facilitating and financing” clandestine sales of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the country’s defense ministry.
“Iran’s Ministry of Defense continues to destabilize the region and world with its support to Russia’s war in Ukraine, unprecedented attack on Israel, and proliferation of UAVs and other dangerous military hardware to terrorist proxies,” US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.
“The United States, in close coordination with our British and Canadian partners, will continue to use all means available to combat those who would finance Iran’s destabilising activities,” he added.
Thursday’s joint sanctions come a week after Washington targeted 16 people and two companies involved in Iran’s UAV program, as well as components for the drones used in the attack against Israel.
The UK government separately targeted seven individuals and six companies for enabling Iran to continue its “destabilising regional activity, including its direct attack on Israel.”
Alongside its sanctions against Iran’s UAV program, the US also targeted five companies providing parts for Iran’s steel industry, and an automaker involved in providing “material support” to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The European Union imposed its own set of sanctions on Iran on Wednesday during a summit in Brussels.
UK slaps fresh sanctions on Iran after Israel attack
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UK slaps fresh sanctions on Iran after Israel attack
- The measures, taken in co-ordination with the US and Canada, target four businesses and two directors at a network of drone companies
Syrian leader to meet Putin, Russia seeks deal on military bases
- Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue
MOSCOW: Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.
Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since Sharaa’s rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar Assad in 2024.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast — its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, launching air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria controlled by Sharaa’s Islamist forces.
The toppling of Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with Sharaa — even as Damascus launched a recent offensive against Kurdish forces long backed by the West.
Despite Trump’s public praise, both the United States and Europe have expressed concern that the offensive in Syria’s northeast could precipitate the return of Islamic State forces held in Kurdish-held jails.
