Tehran Times Splashes Map Of Targets In Israel, Warns Against ‘Wrong Move’

"We call on the few countries who express unconstructive views in the name of the Gulf Cooperation Council to reconsider their approach to regional issues by replacing repeated accusations with cooperation," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The Gulf Arab summit held on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia urged Iran to take concrete steps to ease regional tensions while reiterating a call to include the region in talks between global powers and Tehran aimed at salvaging a 2015 nuclear agreement.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaking at the summit said Iran’s nuclear and missile programs should be handled "seriously and effectively."

"We had believed that there would be a new attitude from the (GCC) after recent diplomatic actions between Iran and Gulf Arab states," Khatibzadeh said, adding: "Iran will not accept any interference in its defense capabilities, missile and peaceful nuclear programs."

Saudi Arabia's crown prince told the summit that the nuclear and missile programs of Iran, Riyadh's longstanding regional adversary, should be handled "seriously and effectively".

With reporting by Reuters

The system that could be used to counter bomb-laden drone boats deployed by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. Another ever-present threat is armed speed boats deployed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that have often menaced US Navy vessels.

The test Tuesday saw the USS Portland test-fire its Laser Weapon System Demonstrator at the target in the Gulf of Aden.

The Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet described the laser as having "successfully engaged" the target in a statement.

Previously, the Portland used the laser to bring down a flying drone in May 2020.

The Houthis have deployed drone boats into these waters, which can be piloted remotely and sent up to a target before detonating.

These boats are suspected of being built with Iran's help.

Emirati officials in 2018 showed off footage they described as coming from a drone boat computer that had Iranians building components for the boat's guidance system, with a hat visible in the background of one picture bearing the symbol of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has denied arming the Houthis, though United Nations experts, independent analysts and Western nations point to evidence showing Tehran's link to the weapons.

Report by AP

Police officials on Wednesday announced the arrests of 42 money exchangers and closure of 20 currency exchange outlets in Tehran accusing them of manipulating the market. The police also summoned managers of 20 websites and social media apps and warned them about exchange rates.

The rial has fallen to more then 300,000 against the US dollar, as negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program in Vienna are stalled and the economic outlook for the country seems bleak. The rial has fallen nearly tenfold since the end of 2017, when it became likely that the United States would abandon the 2015 nuclear agreement and impose sanctions.

Iran’s police and courts have arrested and prosecuted tens of people since 2018 on charges of boosting the value of the dollar or the price of gold, while the fall of the rial is the result of Iran’s economic crisis.

Last week also the Intelligence Ministry arrested five people and closed 841 bank accounts it said were involved in “illegal” currency and futures trade.

General Rasul Sanairad, the political deputy to the chief commander of Iranian armed forces told Mehr news agency on Wednesday that all previous sanctions on Iran have not worked and the Islamic Republic has been able to make substantial progress in developing weapons systems.

A bi-partisan group of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives presented a bill on December 1 to restrict proliferation of Iran's military drones. The lawmakers behind the proposed legislation, the Stop Iranian Drones Act (SIDA), say it clarifies that US sanctions on Iran’s conventional weapons program under CAATSA (The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) include the supply, sale or transfer to or from Iran of drones.

Sanairad who represents of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei insisted that Iran’s weapons are not a threat to neighboring countries. Recent reports have said that Israel and others are concerned over the fast-growing capabilities of Iranian military drones, in addition to its ballistic missiles.

Sanairad went on to accuse Israel of endangering security in the region and threatening safety of navigation. He also questioned the US military’s “illogical” presence in the region.

The budget bill for the next Iranian year, which starts on March 21, includes eight trillion rials for the Revolutionary Guard's Aerospace Command, as well as additional budgets to other organizations that contribute to the program.

The 8-trillion rial funding is a modest $35 million if calculated at current business exchange rates, but it is a large sum when most of it is spent in Iran, where salaries and equipment is much cheaper.

This is in contrast to last year's budget in which Rouhani had allocated only 390 billion rials to the Space Organization affiliated with the Ministry of Communication and 280 million rials to the ministry itself to spend on expanding infrastructure. This clearly shows the two government's approaches to boosting the space program.

So far there is no news of the imminent satellite launch foreign media and space monitoring agencies have been talking about during recent days. However, members of the Higher Council for Aerospace Activities have met recently after 11 years, and activities monitored around Iran's launching pads in Semnan area in central Iran indicate that a launch will probably take place.

President Raisi has said that the meeting is indicative of the high priority his government attaches to the space program. Others attending the meeting included General Amir Hajizadeh the commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

During the past decade Iran has launched several satellites into space but their journeys in the outer space did not last long. In 2003, one of the Iranian satellites even carried an ape but no one believed the animal Iran showed as the one returning to earth was the same monkey.

Observers outside Iran have charged that Iran's space program is a cover to justify its testing of ballistic missiles. Israel and the United States have said that Iran's space program is against a UN decision saying Iranian missiles should not have nuclear weapons capability.

The activities monitored in the central Iranian desert are similar to preparations made ahead of missile and satellite launches coinciding with nuclear negotiations. There were criticisms in the past that such moves were meant to sabotage any rapprochement between Iran and the West.

After the 2015 nuclear deal, the IRGC launched missiles with Hebrew slogans written on them calling for wiping Israel off the map. The difference this time is that those who are negotiating and those who launch the missiles are not each other's political rivals. They both come from the heart of Iran's hardliner conservative camp.

While monitoring agencies and foreign entities are closely following the moves on the ground, Iran has not been concealing its ambitions in space. Raisi visited a space technology exhibition in Tehran on November 26 and asked officials to work on reaching the 36,000 km orbit around the earth in four years.

The likely blast off at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport comes as Iranian state media has offered a list of upcoming planned satellite launches in the works for the Islamic Republic's civilian space program, which has been beset by a series of failed launches.

While missile and satellite launches in the previous years might had been aimed at disrupting negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, this time it appears that Iranian officials are mainly about to show off Tehran's technological progress and highlight the country's ballistic missile capabilities possibly to scare regional players.