Middle East – live: With the death toll in Gaza approaching 34,000, Iran threatens nuclear war with Israel. Leaders of the European Union are unsure on whether to sanction Iran’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran has threatened to use nuclear weapons in an attempt to prevent Israel from retaliating for its own significant attack over the weekend.
Warning that Israel’s threats “make it possible to review our nuclear doctrine and deviate from our previous considerations,” Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Haghtalab issued a warning. “We will surely reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites,” he continued, threatening to target Israel’s nuclear centers.
Since firing over 300 missiles and drones at Israel in an unprecedented attack, this is the first time Iran has directly mentioned its alleged nuclear weapons development.
Experts have cautioned that Iran may produce a nuclear weapon in six months to a year after Donald Trump withdrew the US and Iran from a nuclear accord in 2018.
This comes as the health ministry in Gaza, administered by Hamas, announced that since Israel began its counterattack on October 7, around 34,000 Palestinians had died.
Following Tehran’s attack on Israel over the weekend, the US and the UK impose further sanctions on Iran.
A new wave of sanctions against Iran was imposed on Thursday by the US and the UK as worries that Tehran’s unprecedented strike on Israel may spark a larger Middle East war intensify.
The Iranian manufacturers of the engines used in the drone attacks on Israel on April 13th, 16 individuals and two organizations were singled out by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The UK is also pursuing a number of Iranian military groups, as well as people and companies engaged in Iran’s ballistic missile and drone industries.
A fresh round of sanctions has been imposed on Iran by the United States and the United Kingdom due to growing concerns that Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel may spark a larger Middle East conflict.
US imposes more sanctions on Iran following an Israeli drone and missile attack.
Following Iran’s missile and drone strike on Israel this weekend, the United States has imposed additional restrictions on the country that target its manufacturing of unarmed aerial vehicles.
The US Treasury Department claimed that the sanctions were directed against 16 people and two organizations that supported Iran’s development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including the engine types that propelled Iran’s Shahed version UAVs, which were employed in the strike on April 13.
The Treasury added that it was also identifying five businesses across several countries that either bought finished steel products or supplied Iran’s largest steel maker, Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), with component ingredients for steel manufacturing.
Three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which it claimed had substantially assisted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were also targeted, according to the statement.
The statement claimed that in addition to the Treasury action, many Iranian military groups, as well as people and companies engaged in Iran’s ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle industries, were the targets of British sanctions.
The Group of Seven industrial democracies’ finance ministers and central bank governors announced during a meeting on Wednesday that they would “ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran’s ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support destabilizing regional activities.” This announcement was followed by the US statement.
Leaders of the European Union also resolved on Wednesday to intensify sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran’s strike on Israel with a missile and drone, which left other world powers frantically trying to avert a larger Middle East conflict.
Tehran claims that it carried out the attack on April 13 in revenge for what it believes to be an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1. Israel has threatened to strike again, and a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards stated on Thursday that Iran may reassess its “nuclear doctrine” in response.