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US Warns Iran of Severe Consequences if Americans Attacked

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP)
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US Warns Iran of Severe Consequences if Americans Attacked

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP)

Iran will face severe consequences if it attacks Americans, the White House said on Sunday, including any of those sanctioned by Tehran for the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Iran's sanctions on Saturday came as Tehran's proxy militias continue to attack American troops in the Middle East.

"We will work with our allies and partners to deter and respond to any attacks carried out by Iran," Sullivan said in a statement. "Should Iran attack any of our nationals, including any of the 52 people named yesterday, it will face severe consequences."

Iran on Saturday imposed sanctions on dozens more Americans, many of them from the US military, over the killing of Soleimani.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said 51 Americans had been targeted for what it called "terrorism" and human rights violations. The step lets Iranian authorities seize any assets they hold in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets means it will likely be symbolic.

It was not clear why Sullivan's statement referred to 52 people when Tehran said it had sanctioned 51.

Iran's sanctions included US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also included former White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien.

Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in Iraq in a drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, ordered by then President Donald Trump.

A year ago, Iran imposed sanctions on Trump and several senior US officials.

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World

North Korea's Kim Orders Factories to Make More Missiles in 2026

In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
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North Korea's Kim Orders Factories to Make More Missiles in 2026

In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead. STR / KCNA VIA KNS/AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered officials to step up production of missiles and construct more factories to meet his military's growing need for the projectiles, state media said Friday.

Pyongyang has significantly increased missile testing in recent years -- aimed, analysts say, at improving precision strike capabilities, challenging the United States as well as South Korea, and testing weapons before exporting them to key ally Russia.

In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim had ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead.

The North Korean leader said they needed "to further expand the overall production capacity" to keep pace with demand from Pyongyang's armed forces and ordered the building of new munitions plants, KCNA reported.

"The missile and shell production sector is of paramount importance in bolstering up the war deterrent," Kim said.

North Korea and Russia have drawn closer since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, and Pyongyang has sent troops to fight for Russia, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.

In return, Russia is sending North Korea financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies, analysts say.

Washington has also pointed to evidence that Russia is stepping up support for North Korea, including providing help on advanced space and satellite technology, in return for its assistance in fighting Ukraine.

Analysts say satellite launchers and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) share much of the same underlying technology.

"With its ICBM program already at a stage widely seen as having achieved core objectives, Pyongyang is likely to further accelerate development next year," said Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea.

The country is likely to shift "focus toward testing and producing systems linked to potential exports to Russia -- including medium- and intermediate-range missiles," he added.

Nuclear-powered sub

Kim's visit was reported a day after state media said he had toured a nuclear submarine factory and vowed to counter the "threat" of South Korea producing its own such vessels with Washington's backing.

The North Korean leader also learned about research into "new underwater secret weapons", KCNA said.

North Korea is expected to "seek advanced military technologies from Russia, including nuclear-powered submarine capabilities and fighter jets, as it looks to address its air force's relative weakness," analyst Ahn told AFP.

Kim was reported Thursday to have overseen the test launch of new-type high-altitude long-range anti-air missiles over the Sea of Japan.

And he said that "new modernization and production plans" would be unveiled at his ruling Korean Workers Party's first congress in half a decade, expected in early 2026.

World

Araghchi Warns of 'New Conspiracy' against Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, Russia, 17 December 2025. (EPA/Reuters/Pool)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, Russia, 17 December 2025. (EPA/Reuters/Pool)
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Araghchi Warns of 'New Conspiracy' against Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, Russia, 17 December 2025. (EPA/Reuters/Pool)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, Russia, 17 December 2025. (EPA/Reuters/Pool)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned of a "new conspiracy" being planned by Tehran's opponents, warning that they may seek to create economic and social unrest to destabilize the country.

Speaking at a forum in Isfahan, he explained that the conspiracy will not be based on a direct military confrontation, but an attempt to stir economic problems and weaken Iran internally.

Such a conspiracy will fail, he declared.

On Israel's 12-day war against Iran in June, Araghchi stressed that Tehran's "perseverance thwarted the enemy conspiracy that sought Iran's surrender."

He described the war as a "feat of historic resistance."

"Iran's enemies believed they could impose unconditional surrender within days, but they realized that they needed to retreat against the perseverance of the society and armed forces," added the FM.

The war "sent a message that the Iranian people will not succumb to oppression or dictates," he declared.

Israel killed dozens of Iranian commanders, officials and scientists tied to Iran's nuclear program during the June war. The US briefly joined the conflict to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.

On sanctions, Araghchi said: "We have to acknowledge that we have to live with them."

He stressed that he was aware of their impact and cost, but they also reveal opportunities to introduce reforms.

Moreover, he said sanctions are often used as a form of psychological warfare with the aim to destabilize the economy.

He vowed that the Foreign Ministry will maintain diplomatic efforts to lift the sanctions.

"It will not spare an effort" in investing in any opportunity to ease the international pressure, he added.

Netanyahu's meeting with Trump

Meanwhile, attention turns to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday.

Washington has maintained its "maximum pressure" policy against Iran, while Israel has warned that Tehran was rebuilding its military capabilities after the war during which it dealt it heavy blows to its ballistic missile arsenal.

Araghchi said last week that Iran was not ruling out a new Israeli attack, "but it was prepared more than before."

Media reports have said that Netanyahu will discuss with Trump Iran's ballistic missile program.

Earlier, this week, he warned that Israel was aware of military drills Iran had recently carried out.

Israel is monitoring the situation and will respond firmly to any attack, he stressed without elaborating.

World

Inside Chernobyl, Ukraine Scrambles to Repair Radiation Shield

A satellite image shows a closer view of sarcophagus at Chernobyl, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Satellite image. 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
A satellite image shows a closer view of sarcophagus at Chernobyl, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Satellite image. 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
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Inside Chernobyl, Ukraine Scrambles to Repair Radiation Shield

A satellite image shows a closer view of sarcophagus at Chernobyl, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Satellite image. 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
A satellite image shows a closer view of sarcophagus at Chernobyl, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Satellite image. 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights

Inside an abandoned control room at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a worker in an orange hardhat gazed at a grey wall of seemingly endless dials, screens and gauges that were supposed to prevent disaster.

The 1986 meltdown at the site was the world's worst ever nuclear incident. Since Russia invaded in 2022, Kyiv fears another disaster could be just a matter of time, said AFP.

In February, a Russian drone hit and left a large hole in the New Safe Confinement (NSC), the outer of two radiation shells covering the remnants of the nuclear power plant.

It functions as a modern high-tech replacement for an inner steel-and-concrete structure -- known as the Sarcophagus, a defensive layer built hastily after the 1986 incident.

Ten months later, repair work is still ongoing, and it could take another three to four years before the outer dome regains its primary safety functions, plant director Sergiy Tarakanov told AFP in an interview from Kyiv.

"It does not perform the function of retaining radioactive substances inside," Tarakanov said, echoing concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The strike had also left it unclear if the shell would last the 100 years it was designed to.

The gaping crater in the structure, which AFP journalists saw this summer, has been covered over with a protective screen, but 300 smaller holes made by firefighters when battling the blaze still need to be filled in.

Scaffolding engulfs the inside of the giant multi-billion-dollar structure, rising all the way up to the 100-metre-high ceiling.

Charred debris from the drone strike that hit the NSC still lay on the floor of the plant, AFP journalists saw on a visit to the site in December.

- 'Main threat' -

Russia's army captured the plant on the first day of its 2022 invasion, before withdrawing a few weeks later.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow of targeting Chernobyl and its other nuclear power plants, saying Moscow's strikes risk triggering a potentially catastrophic disaster.

Ukraine regularly reduces power at its nuclear plants following Russian strikes on its energy grid.

In October, a Russian strike on a substation near Chernobyl cut power flowing to the confinement structure.

Tarakanov told AFP that radiation levels at the site had remained "stable and within normal limits".

Inside a modern control room, engineer Ivan Tykhonenko was keeping track of 19 sensors and detection units, constantly monitoring the state of the site.

Part of the 190 tons of uranium that were on site in 1986 "melted, sank down into the reactor unit, the sub-reactor room, and still exists," he told AFP.

Worries over the fate of the site -- and what could happen -- run high.

Another Russian hit -- or even a powerful nearby strike -- could see the inner radiation shell collapse, director Tarakanov told AFP.

"If a missile or drone hits it directly, or even falls somewhere nearby ... it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area," he said.

"No one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that. That is the main threat," he added.