Israel Lasers in on Iranian Drone Threat as Biden Visits

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Israel Lasers in on Iranian Drone Threat as Biden Visits

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Moments after US President Joe Biden touched down in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the Israeli military showed him new hardware it says is essential to confronting Iran: anti-drone lasers.

While Israel has long been known for its efforts to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Israeli officials have increasingly been sounding the alarm over Iran's fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it had intercepted four unarmed drones headed for an offshore gas rig, claiming they were Iranian-made and launched by the Tehran-backed Lebanese party Hezbollah.

As concerns mount over drone warfare, Israel hopes the new "Iron Beam" system will secure its skies.

While not yet operational, the military hardware was described as a "game-changer" in April by then-prime minister Naftali Bennett.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army showed Biden footage of drones being intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system already in place, and the Iron Beam system which uses laser technology.

"It (Iron Beam) will be operational in very few years, it will be on the ground, integrated with Iron Dome," Daniel Gold, head of research at Israel's defense ministry, told AFP.

He said the two systems will "complement each other".

"They will work together, the brain of Iron Dome -- the command and control -- will decide in real time who is going to shoot -- the laser or the missile," he said.

Presenting such technology to Biden is a strategic move for Israel, which saw Washington approve a billion-dollar package in September for the Iron Dome system.

Low-cost warfare

Iron Dome has been used countless times to intercept rockets fired by militants from the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Iran's ally Hamas.

The defense system costs roughly $50,000 per launch, while Bennett priced the Iron Beam at $3.50 per deployment.

He said the new defense system was "silent" and could "intercept incoming UAVs, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles".

Uzi Rubin, a former Israeli defense ministry specialist in anti-missile systems, said intercepting drones was a significant challenge.

"The laser technology will have more capacity against drones than rockets and missiles," said Rubin, who is based at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

"It is going to help if we get some American financing" for the Iron Beam, he added.

Integrating Israel into region

For Israel, a priority of Biden's Middle East tour is broadening US-backed security cooperation among regional countries with shared hostility towards Iran.

The US president will fly Friday to Saudi Arabia, following meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Saudi Arabia and its neighbor the United Arab Emirates have both come under drone attack by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi militias since 2019.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that senior Israeli and US military officials had visited Egypt to discuss Iranian drones.

Upon arriving in Israel on Wednesday, Biden said "we'll continue to advance Israel's integration into the region".

'Significant platform'

According to Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer, Israel has been anticipating the rising threat of drones from Iran and its regional proxies.

"Since 2009, there was an understanding among Israeli naval intelligence that Hezbollah's UAVs would be a threat to Israeli rigs," said Pinko, a specialist at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University.

"Iran understood many years ago that drones were force multipliers, a significant platform and relatively cheap," he told AFP.

The Israeli military has said that it had intercepted in March 2021 two Iranian drones laden with weapons for Gaza fighters.

On Monday, the White House revealed intelligence that Tehran was "preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs... on an expedited timeline" for use in the war in Ukraine.

While Israel aims to counter Iranian UAVs with new technology and regional alliances, it may also be going on the offensive.

In March, Israeli media said the army had launched an attack on an Iranian site storing dozens of armed drones.

But weeks later, Iranian state television broadcast footage of a facility hidden in the mountains: an underground base for scores of military UAVs.



Le Pen Evokes Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. as Supporters Rally in Paris

President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a rally in her support, after she was convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, in Paris on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a rally in her support, after she was convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, in Paris on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
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Le Pen Evokes Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. as Supporters Rally in Paris

President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a rally in her support, after she was convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, in Paris on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a rally in her support, after she was convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, in Paris on April 6, 2025. (AFP)

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Sunday she would peacefully fight her five-year ban from running for office and draw inspiration from American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., as thousands of people rallied in Paris to back her.

A Paris court convicted Le Pen and two dozen National Rally (RN) party members of embezzling EU funds last week and imposed a sentence that will prevent her from standing in France's 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned within 18 months.

"We will follow Martin Luther King as an example," Le Pen said in a video appearance for Italian Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration Lega party, which was holding a meeting in Florence.

"Our fight will be a peaceful fight, a democratic fight. We will follow Martin Luther King, who defended civil rights, as an example."

Le Pen supporters waved French flags and chanted "we will win" as they gathered in central Paris on Sunday afternoon for a peaceful protest, which could give an indication of how much popular backing there is for her accusations that prosecutors in the case sought her "political death".

Pensioner Marie-Claude Bonnefont, 79, said she was against "this parody of a decision against Le Pen".

"One should really question the impartiality of the judges," another protester, political science student Typhaine Quere, told Reuters.

There was no immediate police estimate of attendance at Sunday's protest, but organizers said about 15,000 people had gathered.

LE PEN STILL AHEAD, POLL SHOWS

The court's ruling was a massive blow for Le Pen, 56. The National Rally chief is one of the most prominent figures of the European far right, and a front-runner in polls for France's 2027 election.

Le Pen has appealed the court's decision, and she vowed on Sunday to use all the tools and legal means to be able to run in 2027. The court has said it will issue a ruling on the appeal in the summer of 2026.

An opinion poll by Elabe on Saturday showed Le Pen was still favorite to win the first round of the presidential vote with between 32% and 36% support, ahead of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who was polled at between 20.5% and 24%.

But attacks by Le Pen and her allies over the "tyranny of judges" have not gained traction, even among some of her supporters, particularly after the lead judge in her case was put under police protection following death threats.

Most French people do not see any problem with the court's decision.

Some 65% of respondents said they were "not shocked" by the verdict and 54% said Le Pen was treated like any other defendant, according to an Odoxa poll.

Across the city, at Place de la Republique, leftist party supporters flocked to a counter-demonstration to protest Le Pen's attacks on the French state.

Centrist politicians including two former prime ministers, Gabriel Attal and Philippe, also gathered on Sunday to show a united front against the RN.

"Let us maintain this commitment to the morality of political life and to our institutions at a time when they are being challenged by the far right, which is gathering today to attack our judges, to attack our institutions," Attal said.