U.S. to hit Iran with fresh sanctions after Israel attack

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House last month. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The U.S. will impose new sanctions on Iran's missile and drone program after the country's unprecedented attack on Israel over the weekend, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced Tuesday evening.

Why it matters: President Biden is urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exercise military restraint. But in the economic sphere, the administration is demonstrating a willingness to retaliate against Iran.

🔸These new sanctions and other ones Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is preparing represent a subtle message to Israel that there is more than one way to harm the ruling regime in Tehran.

Driving the news: Sullivan said in a statement that Biden is working in coordination with international partners including G7 nations and bipartisan leaders in Congress on a comprehensive response to Iran's attack.

🔸U.S. defense agencies are working on strengthening air and missile defense and early warning systems across the Middle East.

🔸The new sanctions will also target entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran's Defense Ministry. "We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions," Sullivan said.

🔸Meanwhile, Yellen vowed that the U.S. "will not hesitate" to inflict economic punishment in response to Iran's attack.

What's next: Yellen will press fellow finance ministers — visiting D.C. for the annual spring IMF meetings this week — to focus their governments on possible sanctions work with the U.S. on coordinated actions.

🔸"Treasury will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime's malign and destabilizing activity," Yellen is prepared to say Tuesday during her opening remarks at a press conference.

🔸"The attack by Iran and its proxies underscores the importance of Treasury's work to use our economic tools to counter Iran's malign activity," she will say, according to a copy of her remarks obtained by Axios.

🔸The G7 is also considering sanctions with the goal of isolating Iran internationally and increasing economic pressure on the regime, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.

🔸"We now have a unified alliance of partners," he said. "That wasn't Iran's intent."

Flashback: Days after Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against Hamas leaders and financial facilitators.

Zoom out: Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to check the aggression of Iran and Iranian-backed forces throughout the Middle East.

🔸Biden's warning to Netanyahu to temper any possible Israeli counterattack against Iran was hit with a barrage of criticism Sunday, including from some Democrats.

🔸Last September, Republicans pilloried the president for releasing some $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue as part of a hostage swap deal.

🔸In January, after a pro-Iranian militia killed three U.S. service members in Jordan, some GOP lawmakers called for attacks on targets inside of Iran.

🔸Instead, Biden ordered strikes against Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria.

Zoom in: House Republicans have scheduled more than a dozen votes for this week on bills sanctioning Iran and its proxies in retaliation for last weekend's wide-ranging drone and missile attack on Israel.

Go deeper: Blinken: Escalation with Iran is not in U.S. or Israel's interests

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of the White House national security adviser's announcement.

‘Playing with fire’: Ukraine’s frustration grows with US lawmakers, Europe

 ‘Playing with fire’: Ukraine’s frustration grows with US lawmakers, Europe

Ukraine is raising its standing army by 300,000, as the US stumbles and the EU lacks capacity to defend a future member.

Yuliia takes shelter inside a metro station with her daughter Varvara during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attacks on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 11, 2024. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Yuliia, a Ukrainian woman, takes shelter inside a metro station with her daughter Varvara during a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine 

Athens, Greece – Frustration with the United States for holding back critical financial and military aid from Ukraine spilled into the open at the Delphi Economic Forum in Greece last week.

“The Russians are destroying Ukrainian power plants, which is a war crime, but unfortunately they’re getting away with it because as the collective West we have not supplied Ukraine with enough missiles,” Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish former foreign and defence minister, told Al Jazeera on the sidelines of the meeting.

On the day he spoke to Al Jazeera, Russia unleashed a barrage of some 80 missiles that completely destroyed a thermal power plant in Kyiv, which supposedly has the best air defences in the country.

SM-3 Ballistic Missile Interceptor Used for First Time in Combat, Officials Confirm

 SM-3 Ballistic Missile Interceptor Used for First Time in Combat, Officials Confirm

On Nov. 16, U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Navy sailors aboard USS John Finn (DDG 113), an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System-equipped destroyer, fired a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA guided missile that successfully intercepted and destroyed a mock Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) during a flight test demonstration in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii in November 2020. MDA photo.

For the first time in combat, guided-missile destroyers fired missiles developed to intercept ballistic missiles during the U.S. response to the Iranian attack on Israel, USNI News has learned.

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) and USS Carney (DDG-64), in the Eastern Mediterranean, fired four to seven Standard Missile 3s to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles headed toward Israeli targets over the weekend, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Monday.

Carney and Arleigh Burke have versions of the Aegis combat system that were modified to track and target ballistic missiles. The SPY-1D radar on the destroyers cues the SM-3 to attack the ballistic missile. The SM-3 transports a kill vehicle outside the atmosphere to intercept a ballistic missile near the height of its path from its launch point before it reenters the atmosphere to hit its target.

Both the destroyers were placed off the coast of Israel as part of the defensive measures against a Iranian strike in retaliation for an Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy in Syria.

It’s unclear what missiles the Iranians fired toward Israel, but, according to missile analyst Chris Carlson, the fact the Navy used SM-3s points to the likelihood the Iranians used some of its medium-range ballistic missiles with a range of up to 1,800 miles.

First deployed in early 2004 on U.S. cruisers and destroyers, the SM-3s have been part of the U.S. ballistic missile defense network across the world. In 2011, the U.S. announced it would deploy four U.S. BMD destroyers in Rota as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach to BMD along with missile defense sites based on the Aegis technology in Poland and Romania that also use SM-3s. The EPAA was specifically created during the Obama administration to protect Europe from Iranian ballistic missiles.

Burke is currently part of the U.S. destroyer contingent in Rota, and Carney had previously been stationed there as part of the mission. Likewise, BMD destroyers and cruisers patrol near Japan and South Korea as a hedge against potential North Korean ballistic missile attacks.

While variants of the missile have been in use for more than two decades and have undergone a wide range of tests, they have never been used in a real-world situation.

“Until you use it in combat, there are always questions,” Carlson told USNI News .

 

Gold and Silver Weather the Storm as Middle East Unrest Shakes Crypto Markets

 Gold and Silver Weather the Storm as Middle East Unrest Shakes Crypto Markets

Over the weekend, cryptocurrency assets saw a significant drop, with the crypto economy shedding more than 5% to fall to $2.3 trillion, while precious metals also saw declines, albeit less severe than the digital currency sector. Amidst the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, gold fell by 1.18% in the last day; however, in contrast to bitcoin, it has appreciated against the U.S. dollar over the past week. Furthermore, recent survey data suggest that investors hold an optimistic view of gold for the coming week.

Gold Holds Steady Amid Geopolitical Tensions; Recent Survey Highlights Ongoing Bullish Sentiment

On Saturday, tensions escalated as Iran conducted a drone airstrike against Israel, wiping out over $330 billion from the value of the crypto market. Data indicate that BTC dropped 6.9% over the last week due to the weekend’s downturn. The downturn in the crypto market is largely linked to the Iran-Israel conflict, and U.S. equities are anticipated to experience some impact on Monday. Precious metals, however, experienced only minor losses in comparison to BTC and ETH.

Price of gold on Sunday, April 14, 2024

.

Gold remains 0.6% higher for the week despite a 1.18% decrease in the last 24 hours. Silver has declined by more than 2% during the past day, yet weekly figures show that silver is still up by 1.36%. Over the past six months, both precious metals have climbed more than 21%, and despite bitcoin’s downturn, it still posted a 124% gain over the same period. This week’s Kitco News Weekly Gold Survey reveals that investors in Wall Street and Main Street’s precious metals remain bullish, noting that “geopolitical risks” may act as support rather than hinder gains.

The day before the attack, Frank McGhee from Alliance Financial addressed the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel with Kitco, remarking, “The best component that I can see now is that the market is finally paying attention to geopolitical, and as the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel looms, the market has finally just decided to take notice.” During the cryptocurrency downturn on Saturday, metrics further indicate that traders not only sought refuge in U.S. dollar stablecoins, but also gravitated toward gold tokens such as Tether’s XAUT and Paxos’s PAXG, which both experienced notable increases.

Specifically, PAXG soared to $2,855 per coin on Saturday, drawing considerable interest following the public announcement of the drone airstrike at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. While the substantial premium on PAXG has diminished, it maintains a $100 premium over the current gold spot prices. Meanwhile, the premium observed with XAUT was less pronounced, yet it still stands at $25 above the gold spot price as of Sunday afternoon.

What do you think about gold and silver weathering the storm amid the Middle East conflict between Iran and Israel? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.

Airspace closures throughout the Middle East ground, divert flights as Iran launches drone attack on Israel

 Airspace closures throughout the Middle East ground, divert flights as Iran launches drone attack on Israel

KEY POINTS

🔸United Airlines and other carriers were affected by the airspace closure.

🔸Israel and Jordan closed airspace as Iran launched a drone strike on Israel, according to U.S. officials.

🔸Iran has said it would retaliate against Israel for a airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Flightradar24 over the Middle East on April 14th, 2024 after Iran launched drone strikes towards Israel.

Flightradar24 over the Middle East on April 14th, 2024 after Iran launched drone strikes towards Israel.

Airspace closures through the Middle East grounded and diverted flights on Saturday as Iran launched drones toward Israel.

United Airlines, which resumed service to Tel Aviv early last month after suspending Israel flights after the Hamas attacks in October, called off its Newark to Tel Aviv flight on Saturday after Israel closed its airspace. Jordan and Iraq had also closed their airspace, according to Jordanian state-owned media news outlet Al Mamlaka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews," United said in a statement. The carrier is the only U.S. airline to have resumed service to Israel since October. Delta was scheduled to restart flights to Tel Aviv on June. 7. American Airlines has not resumed Israel service.

United also canceled its flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Amman, Jordan on Saturday night, "due to unrest in the Middle East." United also canceled its Newark-Dubai flight on Sunday.

It was not clear when flights would resume.

Some flights avoided large swaths of airspace in the Middle East, reroutes that delayed some planes, Swiss International Airlines said.

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said multiple flights bound for Tel Aviv and Amman had diverted on Saturday.

Airlines also canceled service scheduled for Sunday. Israel's El Al cancelled more than 20 Sunday flights. Two El Al flights headed for Israel from Thailand diverted to Bangkok. The carrier told passengers not to come to the airport until notified.

Emirates Airline canceled its Dubai-Amman flight scheduled for Sunday. Air France's Israel service was canceled for Sunday and British Airways canceled its two flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday and scrubbed a flight to Amman. Lufthansa also canceled its service to Israel.