IRGC Believed To Be Behind Attacks On Jewish Centers In Germany: Media

Iran Meteorological Organization (IMO) on Friday ranked many urban areas as orange or red from Friday December 30 to January 1, specially in Tehran and nearby cities.

According to local media, the government continues to burn mazut at power stations, a dirty oil product banned in most countries. The country usually faces natural gas shortages in winter months, because of higher home consumption. As a result, the decaying energy sector resorts to using mazut with an immediate impact on air pollution.

IMO warned citizens that air quality in many cities is deemed to be harmful or dangerous. These include Tehran, Karaj, Esfahan, Arak and Tabriz. Local officials have demanded that the government stops using mazut, but that could lead to blackouts.

Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas deposits but is unable to boost production because of lack of capital and Western technology. Government officials have said that the country needs to invest $40 billion in modernizing and expanding its gas extraction facilities, but most are in the Persian Gulf and need Western technology.

Due to its anti-West foreign policy and an expanding nuclear program, Iran is under US sanctions and cannot borrow money or technology from most of the world.

On the sidelines of ceremonies to kick off joint military drills codenamed Zulfaqar 1400 in the Sea of Oman on Friday, an IRGC Commander Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid warned regional countries against any cooperation with Israel in threatening the Islamic Republic’s national security by providing bases or facilities.

“Those bases as well as the points of aggression -- which is the occupying regime of Israel will be the target of attacks by our armed forces.”

Noting that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, the traditional Army and the Revolutionary Guard concur that Israel is the most significant threat to Iran's national security, he said that the Islamic Republic Armed Forces consider military exercises as a “half war” and even a “war before war.”

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Zulfaqar 1400 began with the key motto of “self-confidence, power, sustainable security” in an area stretching from the eastern sector of the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the northern tip of the Indian Ocean, with the first hours of the maneuver dedicated to safeguarding the coasts. 

“The Navy’s rangers used improved arms and equipment to carry out the operation that lasted until dawn, and the naval forces used Dehlavieh, TOW, and shoulder-fired Misagh missiles against the enemy’s aggression on coastal lines,” Brigadier General Alireza Sheikh, spokesman for the drills, said.

In a second day of Russian attacks on cities and civilian infrastructure, 16 16 Shahed suicide drones were sent over Ukraine, where military official said all were destroyed. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 7 were aimed at city and that one administration building was partly destroyed.

On Thursday, Russia fired dozens of cruise missiles and drones at Ukraine, to disrupt electricity and water supplies on the eve of the New Year celebrations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said most regions hit in Thursday's massive air attack suffered power outages.

The areas where loss of power was "especially difficult" included the capital Kyiv, Odesa and Kherson in the south and surrounding regions, and around Lviv near the western border with Poland, Zelenskiy said.

Iran’s delivery of hundreds of Shahed-131 and 136 drones to Russia has enraged the West, which is assisting Ukraine to resist Moscow’s invasion. Western officials have been citing Iran’s weapons deliveries as one reason why they are not inclined to continue nuclear talks with Tehran.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Friday called on member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine.

"I call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not win," Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA.

Stoltenberg said that military support for Ukraine was the fastest way to peace.

In a statement released on Thursday, the US President called Netanyahu “my friend for decades” and said he looks forward “to working with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been my friend for decades, to jointly address the many challenges and opportunities facing Israel and the Middle East region, including threats from Iran.“

Netanyahu who always opposed the Obama-era nuclear accord with Iran known as JCPOA was a close ally of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump and opposed Biden’s policy to negotiate with Tehran to revive the deal. Trump abandoned the agreement in 2018 demanding more concession by Iran.

However, Biden’s diplomatic effort came to a standstill last August, and since then Iran has been supplying suicide drones to Russia to attack Ukraine and has killed hundreds of antigovernment protesters. Both the United States and its European allies say that resuming the nuclear talk sis not their priority in the current situation.

Biden also praised more integration in the Middle East, calling it a „more hopeful vision of a region at peace, including between Israelis and Palestinians.“ This is an endorsement of the 2020 Abraham Accords that established full ties between Israel and four Arab states. Reports in recent days indicate Netanyahu is hopeful to also establish relations with Saudi Arabia.

Military cooperation between Israel and several Arab states is also expanding aimed mainly at containing the Iranian threat.

Moscow fired 69 cruise missiles and an undetermined number of Iranian suicide drones. Ukrainian officials said that they had shot down 11 Iranian-made drones and most of the missiles.

Observers were anticipating a large-scale Russia missile attack to disrupt electricity and water for Ukrainians on New Year eve, but Ukraine’s air defenses have substantially improved, and the damage Thursday seemed to be manageable.

Iran’s delivery of hundreds of Shahed-131 and 136 drones to Russia has enraged the West that is assisting Ukraine to resist Moscow’s invasion. Western officials have been citing Iran’s weapons deliveries as one reason why they are not inclined to continue nuclear talks with Tehran.

Iran has claimed that it delivered the drones before the war, but it has not clearly denied their use in attacking Ukraine.

The United States is scrambling to try to "choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones” as US forces help “Ukraine’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch…,” according to a source that spoke with the New York Times.

Russia’s missile and drone attacks started in September targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure after its military campaign began to unravel. So far Ukraine has shot down 430 drones Russia has used in conjunction with the missile barrages. Most of these drones are believed to have been Iranian made.