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, Turkish foreign ministers address security issues in Ankara
- Officials convened during trilateral meeting involving Syria, Turkiye and Jordan
LONDON: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani met his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Ankara on Monday.
The officials convened during trilateral talks, which included Jordan’s foreign minister, to address joint security and economic issues in the region.
The ministers discussed various issues, including Israeli actions in the southern Syrian Arab Republic since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, as well as coordination with Arab states and the international community to support Syria’s security, stability and sovereignty.
Emir of Kuwait, Lebanese president discuss historic opportunity to shape future
- The meeting at Bayan Palace in Kuwait addressed the recent developments in Lebanon
- Officials highlighted that Lebanon has a historic opportunity to shape its future
LONDON: Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah met with Lebanese President Gen. Joseph Aoun on Monday morning to discuss ways to enhance collaboration between their countries in various sectors.
The meeting at Bayan Palace in Kuwait addressed the recent developments in Lebanon. Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, acting Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah, and senior officials from both countries attended the meeting.
Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah stated that the discussions centered on strengthening ties and exploring ways to develop them across all possible areas.
Officials highlighted that Lebanon has a historic opportunity to shape its future, overcome past challenges, and initiate reconstruction and development to fulfil the aspirations of the Lebanese people for security and stability, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
Sheikh Mohammad noted that the session also addressed key issues of mutual interest, methods to enhance unified Arab action, and recent regional and international developments.
Hundreds march in West Bank against killings of Palestinian medics
- Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members
RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinian Red Crescent staff marched in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to protest the killing of medical workers in Gaza over the past 19 months of war.
Gathering in the city’s Clock Square, medical personnel, support staff and volunteers wore white and orange vests and waved flags bearing the Red Crescent’s emblem.
The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the “protection for medical and humanitarian workers.”
In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, 2023 — including 30 who “were killed while performing their humanitarian duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem.”
Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Israeli army for over a year.
Some 1,400 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the statement, which added that “dozens of medical personnel working in Gaza... were detained while performing their humanitarian duties.”
It highlighted a particularly deadly attack in March in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, when 15 first responders including eight Red Crescent paramedics were killed by the Israeli army.
The first responders were answering distress calls after Israeli air strikes.
The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.
An Israeli military investigation, the results of which were published, acknowledged “professional failures” and “violations of orders” during the shooting.
Syria leader to miss Arab summit in Iraq: diplomatic source
- Powerful Iraqi politicians have rejected hosting the former jihadist leader who became Syria's interim president
- Ahmed Al-Sharaa was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion
BAGHDAD: Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, will not attend an upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad, an Arab diplomatic source said Monday, as powerful Iraqi politicians have rejected hosting a former jihadist leader.
Sharaa, whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Iraqi government has invited Sharaa for the meeting planned for Saturday, but he “will not attend the Arab Summit,” the diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Instead, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani will lead the Syrian delegation.
Several powerful Iraqi politicians have voiced opposition to Sharaa’s planned visit to Iraq.
They include former prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki, a leading member of Iraq’s main pro-Iran coalition that holds a parliamentary majority.
Armed groups aligned with Tehran have also joined the call against Sharaa, including the powerful faction Kataeb Hezbollah which has previously fought in Syria alongside Assad’s forces.
Several Iraqi security sources told AFP that an old arrest warrant for Sharaa from his time as a member of Al-Qaeda remains in place.
However, authorities seek good relations with Syria’s new leadership to help maintain regional stability, the sources said.
The fall of Assad, who was a close ally of the government in Baghdad, has complicated relations between the neighboring countries.
Iraq, where the majority are Shiite Muslims, remains deeply scarred by decades of conflict following the US-led invasion, which triggered sectarian violence and the rise of Sunni jihadist groups including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
‘Settlers on all sides’: West Bank bypass raises fears of Israeli annexation
- Israel has promoted the bypass project as a way to further facilitate settlement expansion in the area near occupied East Jerusalem
- Illegal settler outposts have spread rapidly across the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022
KHAN Al-AHMAR, Palestinian Territories: A creeping Israeli presence is nothing new for the Bedouins who inhabit the arid hills east of Jerusalem, but a recently approved road in the area means the spectre of annexation now looms large.
Israeli authorities in March green lit the construction of a separate route for Palestinian vehicles to bypass a central stretch of the occupied West Bank — one of the territory’s most disputed parcels of land.
Israel has promoted the project as a way to further facilitate settlement expansion in the area near occupied East Jerusalem.
But Palestinians warn the move threatens to further isolate their communities and undermines hopes for a contiguous future state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“If they open a road there, that’s it, this area will be annexed,” said Eid Jahaleen, who lives in the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar.
The village, a cluster of shacks and tents some 10 kilometers from Jerusalem’s Old City, sits surrounded by Israeli settlements.
“It’s going to be hard to reach out to the outside world. No Palestinian services will be allowed to get in here,” he said.
Pro-settler coalition
“If you want clothes, food for your home, (Israel) will be the one to open the gate.”
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Outposts — unauthorized structures under Israeli law that often precede the establishment of a settlement — have spread rapidly across the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, leading a hard-line, pro-settler coalition.
After a new outpost appeared just 100 meters away, Jahaleen said he has “settlers on all sides.”
Israel heavily restricts the movement of West Bank Palestinians, who must obtain permits from authorities to travel through checkpoints to cross into East Jerusalem or Israel.
Far-right ministers have in recent months openly called for Israel’s annexation of the territory.
The alternative bypass would mean Palestinian vehicles driving north-south through the West Bank could travel directly between Palestinian towns rather, without passing the large Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.
Israel has hailed the move as enabling settlement development between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem on a super-sensitive land corridor known as E1.
Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometers, but the international community has repeatedly warned it could deal a fatal blow to a future Palestinian state.
Maale Adumim’s Mayor Guy Yifrach said the Palestinian bypass would reduce congestion on the current highway between the settlement and Jerusalem and “allow for a natural urban continuity” between the two.
Plans exist to build 4,000 housing units, schools, health clinics and a country club on E1, Yifrach said, but added they had not yet been approved.
Khan al Ahmar, E1 and Maale Adumim all lie within a planned section of Israel’s separation barrier for which construction has been frozen for years.
Israel says the barrier — made up of ditches, roads, razor wire, electronic fences, checkpoints and concrete walls — is necessary to prevent Palestinian attacks.
For Palestinians, the structure further separates them and drastically reduces their freedom of movement.
De facto annexation
Aviv Tatarsky, from the Israeli anti-settlement organization Ir Amim, said that once the road is built, Israel could go ahead with constructing the barrier as planned.
“They want to create this de facto annexation, which means take the space around Maale Adumim and make it an integral part of Jerusalem, of Israel,” he said.
By creating an alternative route for Palestinians to travel through the West Bank, Israel could argue that expanding Jewish settlements in the area would not compromise the contiguity of Palestinian territory, Tatarsky added.
For Mohammad Matter, from the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the road “has nothing to do with making life easier for Palestinians.”
The bypass will trace the northern edge of Matter’s village of Al Eizariya, and he fears it will further squeeze Palestinians into isolated enclaves, connected only through transport corridors.
“They (Israel) are realizing their vision: Israelis walk up high and Palestinians walk through valleys or tunnels,” he said.
