Iran has begun to increase its presence in Venezuela, according to a report by Israel’s defense regulator Alma Center. The stationing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) there within range of North America is intended to help deter the United States.
Iran is said to have started sending drones and producing them in Venezuela. This comes from one report from the Israeli Defense Oversight Authority Alma Center. According to the security report, the first unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have already been stationed within Venezuela’s borders within range of the US city of Miami, 2,000 kilometers away.
According to the report, the Iranian drones in Venezuela are “thousands of unmanned systems designed to gather intelligence and attack ground or air targets, either by dropping missiles and bombs or by using a suicidal or perform explosive attack”.
The head of the Alma Center’s research center, Major (Ret.) Tal Beeri, told the news magazine JNSthat the report on the arrival of so-called Iranian-origin UAVs in the Western Hemisphere sheds light on an issue that has received little attention:
“Ultimately, the Iranians have identified Venezuela as a potential base for future anti-US activities. Even if they don’t operate from there, the mere presence in Venezuela in Iran’s strategy poses a threat to the US. The Islamic Republic appears to believe that such a presence will help deter Washington and cause the US to ‘think twice’ before taking military action against Iran.”
In recent years, Iran has unveiled several unmanned aerial vehicles with a range of about 2,000 kilometers that can easily reach the US state of Florida from Venezuela. According to Beeri, it is reasonable to assume that the IRGC maintains personnel in Venezuela that may be military or technical advisers. He further said:
“We know that manufacturing facilities have been set up in Venezuela to manufacture Iranian ‘Mohajer 6’ drones, ostensibly for domestic use.”
The Alma Center report covers 48 Iranian UAV models that are already in operation and some are still in the planning and testing phase. Accordingly, Iran would not only “build a growing arsenal of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on its territory” but also endow its “various allies with such capabilities to an increasing extent”.
Iran, which is under import and export sanctions, is procuring the technologies for the further development of such drone systems with the help of spies in the USA, among others, who acquire the technologies required for the development of their latest UAVs and then make them available to the Iranian military complex.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) just published the reportthat a British man pleaded guilty in a federal court in Washington, DC last Tuesday to attempting to export a US microwave and anti-drone defense system from the United States to Iran without first obtaining the necessary authorization from the for sanctions from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The fact that Iran has deployed UAVs in Venezuela that are capable of reaching targets in the US state of Florida leaves an official statement only recently site the Supreme Spiritual Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, published video animation become a serious threat to United States aviation security. The video shows a drone attack on former US President Donald Trump, who is playing golf at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Iran has repeatedly threatened the former US President with death since he ordered the assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani two years ago. However, the threats have not been taken seriously in the past, as it was considered almost impossible that Iran would be able to reach a potential target in the USA. However, that has changed with the deployment and production of Iranian drones in Iran-allied Venezuela.
Venezuela and Iran are both hit by harsh sanctions that are hurting the countries’ economies. High debts at the United Nations led to the two nations losing their UN voting rights just last week. To circumvent some US sanctions, Iran and Venezuela have established their own trade routes with each other. So show on Tuesday from the news magazine AP News released images of the Iranian-flagged supertanker Starla docking at a Venezuelan port with more than two million barrels of natural gas liquids on board.
The Starla is believed to be Iran’s first condensate shipment to arrive in Venezuela in 2022 as part of the two US-sanctioned oil-exporting nations. However, the Iranian representation did not respond to a request for comment from the United Nations.
Amid an ongoing US sanctions campaign, Iran, which has close ties with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has continued to ship gasoline and other products into the country. The bonds between the two high-inflation-plagued nations are growing stronger as a result of the sanctions imposed on them, which also means a concomitant, strengthening military partnership that can pose a threat to the United States in the long term.
Source » then24