The United States has imposed new sanctions on Iran in favor of Israel. The sanctions have been imposed on a number of individuals and organizations in Iran. The US slapped new sanctions Thursday on 16 people and two entities associated with Iran’s drone attack on Israel. US President Joe Biden made the announcement on Thursday (April 18). This information has been given in a notification on the White House website. "We helped defeat this attack, and today (Thursday) , we are holding Iran accountable—imposing new sanctions and export controls on Iran," Biden said in a statement. "Less than a week ago, Iran launched the world's largest missile and drone attacks against Israel. Together with our allies and partners, the United States defended Israel. The United States is committed to Israel's security," Biden added.  

Israel's top diplomat thanked "friends for their support and assistance" and said Iran needed to be stopped before it was too late. Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Thursday welcomed news that EU leaders would widen sanctions against Iran. "This is an important step to pull the teeth out of the snake," Katz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He thanked "all our friends for their support and help." Katz wrote: "Iran must be stopped now be stopped now before it's too late."  In the early hours of Thursday morning, European Council President Charles Michel announced that the EU would widen the scope of sanctions on Iran, specifically targeting its drone and missile producers. EU leaders have been meeting at a two-day summit in Brussels to discuss Middle East tensions, following Iran's weekend attack on Israel involving hundreds of drones and missiles, among other issues. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has tasked his staff with drawing up new measures. It is not a simple step, however, as the EU has already targeted those responsible for making drones that Iran has sold to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.  Borrell said that proxy forces backed by Iran in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria could also be targeted with sanctions.  

The United States has restricted travel for its embassy personnel in Israel amid fears of an attack by Iran. The US embassy said staff had been told not to travel outside the greater Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Beersheba areas "out of an abundance of caution". Iran has vowed to retaliate, blaming Israel for a strike on its consulate in Syria 11 days ago, killing 13 people. UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has phoned his Iranian counterpart to urge against further escalation. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the consulate attack but is widely considered to have been behind it. Iran backs Hamas, the armed Palestinian group fighting Israel in Gaza, as well as various proxy groups throughout the region, including some - such as Hezbollah in Lebanon - that frequently carry out strikes against the Israelis. Those killed in the consulate attack included a senior commander of Iran's elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, as well as other military figures. The attack came at a time of continuing diplomatic efforts to prevent the war in Gaza spreading across the region. Speaking on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden warned Iran was threatening to launch a "significant attack" and vowed to offer "ironclad" support to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to meet any security challenge, warning that Israel would harm any country that caused it harm. "We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively," he said. The commander responsible for US operations in the Middle East, Erik Kurilla, has travelled to Israel for talks with officials on security threats. The Pentagon said the visit had been scheduled previously but had been brought forward "due to recent developments". Following a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Lord Cameron said he had "made clear... that Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict". "I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence," he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the foreign ministers of China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to argue that further escalation is not in anyone's interest. Following the call, China urged the US to play "a constructive role" in the Middle East, while also condemning the strike widely believed to have been carried out by Israel on Iran's consulate building in Damascus. It is not clear what form any reprisal attack would take nor whether it would come directly from Iran or via one of its proxies. On Sunday an Iranian official warned Israel's embassies were "no longer safe", suggesting a consulate building could be a possible target.   Source: BBC

Two blasts hit Iran's main gas pipeline in what the government called a "terrorist act." Iranian officials did not immediately point the finger at the attackers. Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji said two explosions along Iran's main south-north gas pipeline network were caused by sabotage. But his televised statement made no mention of possible suspects. "This terrorist act of sabotage occurred at 1 a.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday morning in the network of national gas transmission pipelines in two regions of the country," Owji on Thursday. He added that only the villages near the damaged pipeline were experiencing gas outages and that those would be fixed later today. Iranian authorities denied reports that the incident caused gas cuts to industrial plants and offices. Owji pointed to a similar incident in 2011, which he called an act of sabotage, that temporarily cut gas to four different regions of the country.   What do we know about explosions? According to the National Iranian Gas Company, the saboteurs attacked pipelines in the cities of Borujen in the southwestern provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Safashahr in the southern province of Fars. Company manager Saeed Aghli said there were no casualties. Authorities said the ensuing fires were under control in both cases. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Iranian officials did not immediately assign blame. In 2017, Iranian Arab separatists claimed to have bombed two oil pipelines in coordinated attacks in the western Khuzestan region. Iran has also generally blamed agents of its arch-foe Israel for similar acts of sabotage in the past.

Iran threatened Wednesday to “decisively respond” to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic following President Joe Biden's linking of Tehran to the killing of three U.S. soldiers at a military base in Jordan. The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also injured at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that's been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria. However, concerns remain that any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the ongoing attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea. A U.S. Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said. The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts,” IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any possible Iranian retaliation as a “strong response,” without elaborating. The Iranian mission to the U.N. did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani's remarks. Iravani also denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, which is based in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar often serves as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran. “Such messages have not been exchanged," Iravani said. But Iran's government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan. “Sometime, our enemies raise the threat and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials," Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. "We tell them that you have experienced us and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer.” “We are not after war, but we have no fear of war,” he added, according to IRNA. On Saturday, a general in charge of Iran's air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness.” That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board. Meanwhile, attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continue in the Red Sea, most recently targeting a U.S. warship. The missile launched Tuesday night targeted the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. “There were no injuries or damage reported,” the statement said. A Houthi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed the attack in a statement Wednesday morning, calling it “a victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the American-British aggression against our country.” Saree claimed the Houthis fired “several” missiles. something not acknowledged by the U.S. Navy. Houthi claims have been exaggerated in the past, and their missiles sometimes crash on land and fail to reach their targets. The Houthis claimed without evidence on Monday to have targeted the USS Lewis B. Puller, a floating landing base used by the Navy SEALs and others. The U.S. said there had been no attack. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe. The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis as allied warships patrol the waterways affected by the attacks. The European Union also plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against the Houthi attacks, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.   Source: Time

After Pakistan fired at targets on Iranian territory in retaliation for attacks carried out by Iran on Pakistani territory, both states now say they want to defuse the situation. The military response was followed by a warning. On January 18, senior security sources in Pakistan said that the armed forces were on "extremely" high alert and that any further "misadventure" from the Iranian side would be met "forcefully." Pakistan fired at targets on Iranian territory, particularly in the border town of Saravan, after Iran targeted militants on Pakistani territory two days before. Iranian state television said that three women and four children, who were reportedly not Iranian nationals, had been killed in a village near the border. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it had carried out a "series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes" against "terrorist hideouts" in Sistan and Baluchistan, a province in southeastern Iran. It said the strikes were carried out "in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities" and that several "terrorists" had been killed. Iranian state media reported the deaths of nine people. 'Diversionary maneuver by Islamic Republic' Iran, for its part, not only conducted attacks on Pakistani territory, but earlier this week also attacked targets in Syria and Iraq. Several Iranian missiles hit Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.   IRNA, Iran's state news agency, reported that Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units had attacked "a spy headquarters" of Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, as well as a "gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups." According to Iraqi reports, at least four civilians were killed and six injured in the attack. The Revolutionary Guards said that in occupied Syria they had "identified and destroyed" the gathering places of commanders of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group, by firing a series of ballistic missiles.  Domestic and regional motives Sara Bazoobandi from the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) said the strikes were linked to blasts that occured in early January in the Iranian city of Kerman, near the grave of the former Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the US in 2020. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the January attack, which killed approximately 90 people. "The government has barely commented on the attack so far," said Bazoobandi, who added that little was known as to why. "In particular, the government and security authorities cannot explain why they were unable to prevent such an attack." Bazoobandi said Israel's deadly late December airstrike on Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a Revolutionary Guards general in Syria, also caused considerable consternation among the Iranian regime's supporters. She said that if the regime was now attacking targets beyond its borders in an unsystematic way, it was to demonstrate that it is still strong. "This would also fit in with the explanation that the Kurdish businessman killed in the attack in Syria was a spy working for Israel. Ultimately, the regime's aim is to keep its supporters happy with random attacks." Political scientist Ali Fathollah-Nejad, the director of the Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG), a Berlin-based think tank, had a similar view. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote that Iran's attacks were "primarily a diversionary maneuver by the Islamic Republic, motivated by domestic and regional concerns."  "But this Iranian strategy is not succeeding. […] Instead, this is now turning into a diplomatic fiasco."   'Pakistani sovereignty was violated' However, the motives behind the attack on Pakistan remain unclear. Mola Bakhsh Dashti, a local in Koh-e-Sabz in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, said that there had long been tension: "This is not the first incident. We are used to attacks by Iranian forces. The only difference is that people died, so Pakistan retaliated, and people came to know about the incident. If it had been like one of the usual attacks, where people remain unharmed, no-one would have been bothered." According to a former spokesman for the militant separatist organization Jaish al-Adl, which wants independence for the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan and has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on the Iranian military in the past, the government in Tehran did not originally plan to shell Pakistani territory. "The government tried to target us in Iran, and I assume by mistake they misfired the missiles," he told DW on condition of anonymity.   Pakistani security expert Raashid Wali Janjua told DW that his country had to react. "Pakistani sovereignty was violated, and Pakistan was under pressure to respond as civilians were targeted," he said, adding that now the aim was not to escalate but to "defuse" the situation. "Iran's response will play an important role in [terms of] further clarity. […] We hope that now they will act as a responsible country. And, after these two sad incidents, they will stop the escalation."   Tehran plays down situation For their part, Iranian authorities and state media have tried to play down the significance of Pakistan's counterattack. The Tasnim News Agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, published a video in which Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, insisted that Pakistan had great respect for the people of Iran. At a news conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, she stated: "Pakistan considers people of Iran as our friends and brothers and we have no interest in escalating any situation. […] We also believe that dialog and cooperation is essential for confronting common challenges, including the menace of terrorism and we would like to continue to engage with all neighbors including Iran." On Thursday morning, the Iranian interior minister spoke to the press about what had happened in the Iranian city of Saravan. He mentioned "explosions" but avoided using the term "attack." Sistan and Baluchistan, the southeastern Iranian province where Saravan is located, is the poorest in the country. There have been numerous social media comments by Iranians who are angry about the Iranian government's response. Khalil Balouch, an activist from Sistan and Baluchistan, wrote on X that the damage caused by Pakistan's missile attacks on Saravan was considerable: "Buildings have been destroyed, the pictures are heart-breaking. And on TV they are brazen enough to say that no Iranians were killed in the attack." 

Islamabad has condemned the "unprovoked violation" of its airspace after an Iranian attack killed two children and injured three people. Iran says it struck a Sunni militant group. Iran claimed it struck bases belonging to Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group in Pakistan, in a cross-border attack Tuesday. It comes after Iran launched similar attacks on Syria and Iraq over the past several days.   What do we know about the reported Iranian attacks on Pakistan? Iranian state media reported that drones and missiles were used in the operation. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack, condemning it as an "unprovoked violation" of its airspace. It said that two children were killed in the incident and three people injured. "This violation of Pakistan's sovereignty is completely unacceptable and could have serious consequences," a Foreign Ministry statement read.   Why is there tension between Pakistan and Iran? Beyond fears that the incident could further inflame the already tense situation growing around the conflict in Gaza, it rings ominous for relations between nuclear-armed Pakistan and nuclear-ambitious Iran. The two have long eyed one another warily while at the same time seeking to maintain diplomatic relations. Though Iran has engaged Jaish al-Adl militants in border skirmishes in the past, the execution of cross-border missile attacks had never taken place.

Mohammadi was sentenced to over a year in prison for allegedly spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic. Her family said this was her fifth conviction since March 2021. An Iranian court has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to more time in prison, accusing her of spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic while in prison. Mohammadi's family said on Monday the Revolutionary Court sentenced in December the Nobel Laureate to 15 months in prison. They added that she had boycotted the trial. Mohammadi is currently serving a 30-month sentence in Tehran over allegedly spreading propaganda against the ruling system, disobedience in prison and defamation of authorities. What does the latest ruling say? According to the new sentence, Mohammadi was ordered to spend two years in exile outside Tehran, which means she will have to be moved from the notorious Evin prison where she is currently held. The Iranian activist was also given a two-year travel ban, as well as a two-year ban on using a smartphone. Both will come into force once she's eventually freed. Mohammadi's family said this was her fifth conviction since March 2021.  Her family condemned the verdict as akin to a "political statement" emphasizing accusations that she "repeatedly incites and encourages public and individual opinions against the Islamic regime to sow chaos and disturbances." Who is Narges Mohammadi? Narges Mohammadi, who has campaigned for human rights in Iran for decades, has been in and out of jail for nearly 20 years due to her tireless advocacy in defiance of the Islamic Republic's regime. She has been arrested 13 times, and convicted five times. The 51-year-old human rights activist has kept up her work despite the numerous threats and arrests. In November last year, Mohammadi went on a hunger strike after she and several other inmates were denied access to health care. She also said that it was in protest against the country's mandatory headscarves for women. Her children accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo's city hall in October on her behalf in her absence. More proceedings against two female journalists Meanwhile, Iran's judiciary launched new proceedings against two journalists who had only been released on Sunday on bail after spending over a year in prison. Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi have been accused of posing without the mandatory headscarf upon their prison release. They had also been held in Evin prison. Their images, smiling and holding hands outside the prison, circulated on social media. The two female journalists were arrested for their coverage of the September 2022 death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests.    

Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were among the first reporters to cover Jina Mahsa Amini's death in September 2022. They were both charged with colluding with the US government among other things last year. Two Iranian journalists who were serving long prison sentences for their coverage of the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have been released on bail pending their appeal, Iranian media reported Sunday. The two journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, were among the first to report on Amini's death in police custody following her incarceration for supposedly wearing her headscarf improperly.  The young Kurdish woman's death prompted widespread protests throughout the country — typically involving young women demonstrably uncovering their hair in public — and subsequently a crackdown from authorities in Tehran. The two journalists were greeted by relatives and supporters upon their release from custody on Sunday. However, they have since been charged with not wearing the mandatory hijab in photos taken after their release that were widely shared on social media. "After footage of the defendants without hijab was released online, a new case has been filed against them," the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news portal said on Monday. Bail for the pair combined equates to around a century's salary for average earner in Iran The two journalists were charged last year by a court in Iran for collaborating with the US government among other things. They were sentenced to up to seven years in prison, the judiciary news ageny Mizan had reported. Hamedi wrote for the daily newspaper Shargh and Mohammadi covered social issues and gender equality for the newspaper Ham-Mihan. They were jointly awarded UNESCO's world press freedom prize in May of 2023. The bail was set at roughly $200,000 (around €180,000) and their release is pending their appeal hearing. They were forbidden from leaving the country before trial. $200,000 equates to about 50 years' salary for a person earning Iran's estimated GDP per capita of around $4,000 per annum. Some 100 journalists were also arrested amid the demonstrations that spread across the country following Amini's death, as Iran sought to repress information on them at home and abroad. Thousands still detained over protests against Amini's death Amini's death on September 16, 2022, after being detained by the country's morality police for allegedly not wearing the hijab headscarf properly, sparked widespread outrage in the country. Mass wave of protests swept the country, posing one of the most serious challenges to Iran's theocratic establishment since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Iranian forces heavily cracked down on protesters, detaining thousands of people, from university professors to bereaved family members of those killed during the very demonstrations. Iran has not offered any casualty figures but acknowledged thousands of detentions. Human rights groups in Iran say at least 529 peole were killed in Iran and more than 19,000 detained during the crackdown on the 2022 and 2023 protests.

Iranian state media say Iran's navy has taken control of an oil tanker off Oman on a "court order." The incident comes amid a spate of attacks on ships in the region by various actors. Iran's navy on Thursday seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, an action that is likely to further raise already high tensions in maritime regions of the Middle East. The seized ship, identified by private intelligence firm Ambrey as the Marshall Islands-flagged St. Nikolas, was once, under the name of Suez Rajan, at the center of a long-running dispute between Washington and Tehran. The row culminated in the US Justice Department seizing a million barrels of sanctioned Iranian crude oil that were aboard it last year. Iranian state media said the St. Nikolas had been seized in retaliation for what it called the "theft" of Tehran's oil.  The incident comes following multiple attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen on ships in the Red Sea in recent weeks that have prompted US and British officials to warn of potential military consequences. What are the circumstances of the seizure? The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a body run by the British military, said the seizure took place in the early hours of Thursday morning near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which a fifth of globally traded oil transits. Ambrey said "four to five armed persons" boarded the ship, which has a crew of 18 Filipinos and one Greek national. Since the collapse of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, several ships have been seized by Tehran in waters around the strait. The tanker's Greece-based management company, Empire Navigation, told news agency AFP in a statement that the vessel had been transporting 145,000 metric tons of crude oil from Basra, Iraq, to Aliaga in Turkey.   State-run Iranian news agency IRNA, quoting the Iranian navy's public relations office, said the ship was now "being transferred to the ports of the Islamic republic for delivery to the judicial authorities." Tit-for-tat measures Iran already retaliated last year to the seizure of Suez Rajan's oil by taking over two tankers — the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet as it sailed toward the United States in the Gulf of Oman, and then the Greek-owned Niovi, as it traveled from Dubai to Fujairah, in the UAE.  The country is under US sanctions, reimposed after Washington's 2018 withdrawal from the landmark nuclear deal.