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Congress Intensifies Efforts against Iran's UAV Program

Senate Foreign Relations Committee put forward a bill imposing sanctions on Iran's UAV program (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee put forward a bill imposing sanctions on Iran's UAV program (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Congress Intensifies Efforts against Iran's UAV Program

Senate Foreign Relations Committee put forward a bill imposing sanctions on Iran's UAV program (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee put forward a bill imposing sanctions on Iran's UAV program (Asharq Al-Awsat)

US lawmakers have stepped up their efforts to confront the threat of the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program after the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill imposing sanctions on it.

On Thursday, senators proposed a similar plan at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Committee Ranking Member, Jim Risch, and Chairman Bob Menendez introduced on December 16 bipartisan legislation to prevent Iran and any terrorist or militia groups aligned with Iran from acquiring lethal drones.

They indicated that the US government is intensifying its efforts to stop Tehran's flourishing lethal UAV program.

The Stop Iranian Drones Act of 2021 seeks to amend the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to include any action that seeks to advance Iran's UAV program, as defined by the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, as sanctionable under US law.

Menendez warned that Iran's increasing reliance on unmanned aerial vehicles to attack US personnel and assets across the Middle East and shipping vessels, commercial facilities, and regional partners are a serious and growing menace to regional stability.

He cautioned that Iran's reckless export of this kind of technology to proxies and terrorist actors across the region represents a significant threat to human lives.

"We must do more to hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing behavior as we continue to confront the threat of its nuclear program."

"I'm pleased to join our colleagues in the House of Representatives in this effort to add UAVs to existing laws that counter conventional threats from Iran, bringing it in line with the UN Register of Conventional Arms."

Risch asserted that the efforts must do more to halt Iran's regional terrorism.

"Iran's armed drone capability presents a growing threat to the Middle East. This legislation rightly imposes costs on the Iranian drone program and its supporters."

CAATSA, the US law passed by Congress in 2017, includes penalties for anyone who supplies, sells, or transfers combat drones to or from Iran, which can be used in attacks against the United States or its allies.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.