Russia Sends Iranian Drones To Belarus To Attack Ukraine - Military

"Any French visitor, including dual nationals, is exposed to a high risk of arrest, arbitrary detention and unfair trial," read a Friday statement by Paris.

Earlier Thursday, Paris condemned Tehran for airing a video of a French couple, who say they are spies of the French intelligence service.

In order to build a narrative of foreign engendered protests, Iranian state media on Thursday released a trailer of an apparently longer program featuring forced confessions of Cécile Kohler, an educator who heads the teachers’ union National Federation of Education, Culture and Vocational Training (FNEC FP-FO) and her husband Jacque Paris.

In the short clip, they say they are agents of the French intelligence service, and were sent to Iran to prepare grounds for riots. State TV said the two French citizens had entered Iran with "chunks of money ... which was meant to fund strikes and demonstrations." "Our goal at the French security service is to pressure the government of Iran," said Paris in the video.

Moreover, the Dutch government on Friday urged all Dutch nationals to leave Iran and advised against all travel to the country, Dutch news agency ANP quoted Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra as saying.

The US reaction came at the same time that Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced strong measures against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for its role in ongoing human rights violations.

The Biden Administration has sanctioned Iranian officials involved in implementing repressive measures since popular protests began in mid-September after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini was killed in the custody of Iran’s religious or ‘morality’ police.

"We are going to continue to coordinate with our allies and partners and respond to Iran's violent crackdown as well as, frankly, its state-sponsored violence against women," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Nationwide protests broke out in Iran after Amini was pronounced dead from injuries to her brain on September 16. Security forces have acted brutally against protesters, killing many including teenagers and children.

"The Iranian government has now killed more than 100 people in its bloody crackdown," he added, citing credible human rights groups.

European countries have also reacted to Iran’s violations of human rights during the protests and have vowed to hold Tehran responsible for its treatment of women. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning Amini’s killing and asking member states to react to Iran’s violations.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the claims during a phone conversation with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto late on Thursday. 

He said certain states dispatch arms and ammunition to Ukraine, but the Islamic Republic did not send any weapon to Russia to be used in the invasion of Ukraine, because Tehran believes that the only way to resolve the issue is through diplomatic channels, and that any sort of military aid will delay the opportunity to reach peace.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani had said October 3 that media reports were “baseless” and that Tehran was committed to “active neutrality and opposition to war and the need for a political settlement of the differences between the two sides and away from violence.”

Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said Thursday that six explosions 75km south of the city early Wednesday, wounding one in a military base at Bila Tserkva, had been carried out by Iranian-made Shahed 136 delta-wing ‘kamikaze’ drones. 

Moreover, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address to the participants of the European Political Community summit in Prague on Thursday, “Today, Russia launched another airstrike on Ukrainian cities. It used Iranian drones again. By the way, they are used every day, and so far Iran says every day that there are allegedly no such drones here.”

The Paris-based operator said in a statement that it had reminded the Iranian authorities that intentional jamming is "explicitly prohibited" by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations. 

"The interferences harmfully affect the transmission of several digital TV and radio channels broadcasting in Persian from outside of Iran, as well as other channels," it said, adding that "Eutelsat's technical experts have been working around the clock with affected customers to mitigate the impact of the interference on service as much as possible.”

After the Islamic Republic resorted to orbital jamming to limit access to Iran International, the news network launched a lawsuit to legally pursue the case through international bodies.

The signals directed at satellites are beamed into space from a site near Karaj, west of Tehran, amid escalation of the protests – sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who was killed in custody of hijab police.

Earlier in the day, hacktivist group Anonymous said it is jamming about 48 of the Islamic Republic’s radio and television networks, and will continue disrupting channels affiliated with state broadcaster IRIB as long as the Islamic Republic jams signals to Persian-language satellite channels.

Tens of millions of people In Iran watch satellite TV channels such as Iran International because television in Iran is government-owned, echoing official propaganda.

Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv military administration, said that six explosions 75km south of the city early Wednesday, wounding one in a military base at Bila Tserkva, had been carried out by Iranian-made Shahed 136 delta-wing ‘kamikaze’ drones.

Air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television the drones had been launched from Russian-held territory to the south, with six others shot down. In remarks widely picked up by international media, Ihnat called the threat signaled by the attack “serious,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly discussed with commanders the “new types of weapons that the aggressor has begun to use.” Ukrainian officials earlier suggested the drones offer Moscow an easily-assembled, cheap alternative to high-precision missiles.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani had said October 3 that media reports were “baseless” and that Tehran was committed to “active neutrality and opposition to war and the need for a political settlement of the differences between the two sides and away from violence.”

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in July warned Iran had agreed to supply drones to Russia after a visit by commanders to an Iranian air base, although US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said July 29 there were still “no signs of purchase.” Subsequent claims by US officials over Iran supplying drones have been anonymous.

Bombs, lobbyists, and air defenses

Ukraine has lobbied heavily in Washington, including recently sending a troop of female soldiers, and now argues that Russia’s use of Iranian drones justifies the US supplying more advanced weapons, a call echoed by some advocates of Ukraine and commentators.

Despite the Iranian foreign ministry’s insistence that Tehran is neutral in the conflict, its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Vladimir Putin for his “initiative” of invading Ukraine, during their meeting in Tehran on July 19. Iran has long been a “strategic ally” of Russia, having supplied the ground troops in Syria to save President Bashar Assad’s government in the civil war.

Without an effective air-force due to decades of sanctions, Iran has developed domestic drone production, beginning with surveillance in the 1980-88 war with Iraq and progressing into carrying munitions. Some analysts argue Russia’s own development of drones has been hampered by air-force commanders’ preference for piloted airplanes.

Regional leaders in drone production are Israel and Turkey. Ankara has supplied Ukraine since 2019 with the advanced Bayraktar TB-2 while also acting in the current conflict as the main mediator between Moscow and Kiev. Despite being a top-ten global arms exporter and a leader in UAVs, kamikaze drones and precision-guided missiles, Israel has been criticized by Ukraine for not supplying weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in September he was “in shock because I don’t understand why they couldn’t give us air defenses.” Politicians of various hues in Israel, where around 15 percent of voters are Russian-speakers, are loath to undermine good relations with Moscow.