US Forces Neutralize Iranian-Backed Houthi Threats in Red Sea
A protester holds a poster during a rally by Houthi supporters to show support to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen April 26, 2024.
US forces on Saturday intercepted and destroyed one uncrewed aerial system (UAS) backed by Iran-affiliated Houthi rebels in the southern Red Sea, while two others crashed into the sea.
US Central Command reported that the forces also neutralized two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles aimed at the USS Gravely. No injuries or damages were reported to US, coalition, or commercial vessels in the area.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) also reported an unrelated incident occurring 48 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Hodeidah, where a vessel’s master observed an explosion at a distance from his ship.
The ship and its crew were confirmed safe and are proceeding to their next port of call, according to a UKMTO advisory note. British security firm Ambrey reported missile activity near the same location, indicating a continued threat in the region.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia, who control Yemen's capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November, heeding a call by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to blockade Israeli trade, drawing retaliatory US and British strikes since February as the blockade expanded to international shipping.
Claiming solidarity with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, they have since taken dozens of international seamen hostage and affected at least half of the world's shipping on the route through the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden,forcing shipping companies to reroute cargo around southern Africa.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed that the group conducted six operations targeting major maritime and naval assets, including a US aircraft carrier and a US destroyer, along with three other vessels in the strategic waters of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The Swedish temporary chargé d'affaires in Tehran was summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday, accused of spreading "baseless and malicious accusations against Iran."
Daniel Stenling, the head of counter intelligence at the Swedish Security Service, revealed at a news conference on Thursday that the plots are proxies for the Iranian government.
The groups have reportedly targeted Israeli interests and Iranian dissidents within Sweden. "The Security Service can now confirm that criminal networks in Sweden are proxies that Iran uses," Stenling stated, supported by news revealed by Israel's intelligence services Thursday of terror plots across Europe including Belgium and Sweden against Jewish and Israeli targets.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said, "It is deeply worrying that a foreign power, in this case Iran, should have used criminal networks to commit or instigate crimes in Sweden."
Iran has held Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus hostage since last year, part of its ongoing policy of diplomatic hostage taking, accusing him of espionage.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry reacted defiantly to the latest sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States.
He accused the EU on Saturday of favoring the interests of the "Zionist regime and America" above those of its own member nations.
The sanctions, announced Friday, specifically target high-ranking officials and entities within Iran, including the country's defense minister and its Revolutionary Guards, for their role in transferring arms and military equipment used against Israel, Ukraine, and in the Red Sea region.
Kanaani criticized the European Union for what he described as "double standards" and for resorting to "repeated, baseless, and unsubstantial excuses and accusations" that overlook the realities of West Asia.
Despite these international rebukes, he affirmed that Iran would persist with its "fundamental policies."
The EU’s actions, which also align with measures taken by the United States and Britain, follow Iran’s alleged involvement in sending missiles and drones to support Russia in its conflict in Ukraine, as well as to militant groups in the Middle East.
Highlighting the gravity of the situation, the EU stated that the listed individuals and entities were actively involved in undermining peace and security by supplying drones and missiles to "armed groups and entities" in conflict zones.
The US on Friday issued sanctions targeting entities for enabling Iran's drone program, in Washington's latest action seeking to disrupt the production and proliferation of UAVs used by Russia against Ukraine.
“Today’s action reinforces our commitment to disrupt Iran’s production and proliferation of deadly UAVs that continue to be used by Russia against Ukraine and by regional terrorist proxies against our troops,” US Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in a statement.
“Treasury will continue to impose costs on those who seek to procure the components Iran needs for its UAV programs and enable the shipment of these weapons to destabilizing actors around the world.”
Iran has supplied thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones to Russia throughout its invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. They have been used to exhaust Ukrainian air defences and hit infrastructure far from the front lines.
The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on four entities that have procured critical parts for Iran's drone program as well as an executive of Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), a subsidiary of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
The Treasury said Afshin Khajeh Fard, the chief of IAIO, oversees its efforts to produce drones and missiles.
Friday's action freezes any of their US assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.
The EU Council has sanctioned six Iranian people and three entities for involvement in Tehran’s UAV program,supplying Russia for its invasion of Ukraine or armed groups in the Middle East and Red Sea region.
Sanctioned individuals include Iran’s Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani; Commander of Revolutionary Guards' extraterritorial Qods Force Esmail Qaani; Afshin Khaji Fard, who heads the Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO); Kavan Electronics Behrad LLC CEO Mehdi Dehghani Mohammadabadi;its board chair Hossein Hatefi Ardakani; and Gholam Ali Rashid, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
The entities listed in the new measure are the IRGC Navy, IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, and Kavan Electronics Behrad LLC, which procures and sells components for manufacturing UAVs.
The European Council also strongly and unequivocally condemned the Iranian attack on Israel and affirmed its full solidarity with the people of Israel and commitment to Israel's security and to regional stability.
The Council also called on Iran and its proxies to cease all attacks that have escalated following Hamas October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the current Middle East conflict.
“The European Council stated that Russia’s access to sensitive items and technologies with battlefield relevance must be restricted to the maximum extent possible, including by targeting entities in third countries enabling the circumvention of sanctions.”
The European Council also called on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and on the Commission “to prepare further sanctions, notably on Iran.”
UN experts are warning of transnational violence, threats, and intimidation by Iranian authorities and their proxies targeting the Persian language news service Iran International and its journalists.
“We are deeply alarmed that death threats and intimidation against Iran International staff escalated into the violent stabbing of journalist Pouria Zeraati outside his home in London on 29 March 2024,” the experts said.
Zeraati, one of the network’s most prominent television hosts and journalists, was stabbed outside his home in London in March, prompting British police to launch a counterterrorism investigation.
Last year, Scotland Yard disclosed that police and MI5 had foiled 15 plots since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or kill UK-based individuals perceived as “enemies of the Iranian regime.”
The five special UN rapporteurs urged the Iranian authorities to “refrain from violence, threats and intimidation against Iran International and its staff, online and offline, and other journalists and media workers reporting on Iran from abroad.”
The threats faced by Iran International and its staff from Iranian authorities and their proxies are intended to silence critical media reporting on Iran, the experts assert.
Since its founding, the network and its journalists have endured threats, but these reportedly surged dramatically after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests erupted across Iran in 2022.
The months-long nationwide demonstrations by Iranians were met with a brutal crackdown by authorities, resulting in at least 550 deaths, tens of thousands of detentions, and a sharp increase in recorded executions.
Iranian authorities falsely blamed Persian media abroad for fueling the unrest, leading to a sharp increase in threats and assassination plots against its journalists, the UN experts said.
After multiple threats from Tehran, Iran International wastemporarily forced to relocate its broadcasting activities to the US in 2023. The broadcaster has since resumed its work from a studio in the UK.
In 2022, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated an assassination plot targeting two Iran International news presenters, Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet. The plan initially involved a car bomb but was later foiled by a double agent working for a Western intelligence agency.
The following year, Iran International journalist Kian Amani was physically and verbally assaulted by a member of Iran’s delegation to the United Nations at a hotel in New York.
“Such attacks not only violate the human rights to life and personal security but are also aimed at suppressing freedom of expression and the media, including legitimate criticism of the Iranian Government,” they said.
Iran also imposed travel and financial sanctions on Volant Media, which owns Iran International, in 2022 for supposedly supporting terrorism and froze the assets of the owners and their family members in Iran in 2019.
Islamic Republic Targets Dissidents and ‘Enemies’ Abroad
The experts also asserted that the threats emanating from Iran were part of a broader pattern of attacks against Persian language media and dissidents abroad, including journalists working for BBC News Persian, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, IranWire, and Radio Farda.
In recent years, headlines have repeatedly highlighted threats and targeting by the Iranian state against the Iranian diaspora and anyone deemed an enemy of the Islamic Republic.
This week, the Swedish Security Service says it “established that the Iranian regime uses criminal networks in Sweden to carry out violent acts against other states, groups, or individuals in Sweden that Iran regards as threats.” It also said that Iran has carried out acts of violence in other European countries to silence criticism and “what it regards as threats to its regime.”
Germany has marked a rise in Iran’s activitiestargeting Jewish communities and the Iranian diaspora. A notable incident involved an attack on the Old Synagogue in Essen, where bullets were fired at the building. German and Western intelligence officials identified Ramin Yektaparast, a Hells Angels leader operating from Tehran, as the orchestrator of the attack, allegedly directed by the IRGC.
Canada’s spy agency, in late 2022, noted credible death threats against Iranians in Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported that state actors from the Islamic Republic of Iran are monitoring and intimidating individuals within Canada to silence those who publicly criticize the regime.
One of the most high-profile incidents of Iran’s transnational repression involved Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad. She was targeted in a kidnapping plot announced by the Justice Department, and later, in a murder-for-hire plot. Prosecutors charged a group of Iranians, said to be working at the behest of the country's intelligence services, with planning to kidnap her.
The repression of Iranian dissidents on Western soil dates back to the chain murders of 1988–98, when several Iranian intellectuals critical of the Islamic Republic disappeared or were killed.
Among the victims was TV host and political activist Fereydoon Farokhzad, whose murder on German soil is widely believed to have been orchestrated by the authorities in Iran as part of this series of assassinations.
