The United States is preparing for a new drone attack from Iran. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Washington would focus on increasing their level of military preparedness. At the same time, the Israeli army eliminated three members of Hezbollah after a strike targeting Lebanon, including Ismail Youssef Baz, the commander of the coastal sector of the Islamist movement.
Information to remember
⇒ The United States will strengthen its sanctions against Iran
⇒ Paris condemns the violence in the occupied West Bank
⇒ Three Hezbollah members died in Lebanon
The United States will strengthen its sanctions against Iran
After the Iranian attack launched against Israel on Saturday April 13, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Tehran “including its drone and missile programs”, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Ministry of Defense, announced this Tuesday at the White House.
“These new sanctions, along with other measures, will continue the ongoing pressure on Iran to contain and degrade its military capabilities,” added Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. He also indicated that the American armed forces will endeavor to increase their level of preparation to face possible new drone and missile strikes from Iran.
“We expect our allies and partners to quickly follow us with their own sanctions,” notes the Washington press release. On the Brussels side, the idea is in fact already on the table with the aim of “expanding the existing (sanctions) regime against Iranian drones”, declared the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell. .
Paris condemns violence in occupied West Bank
This weekend, the death of an Israeli teenager murdered in unknown circumstances in the occupied West Bank sparked major reprisals from settlers who attacked villages, killing at least four civilians. France “condemns”, on the one hand, the murder of this 14-year-old teenager, but also “the acts of violence committed by settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank”.
Paris then called on the Israeli authorities “to bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice without delay”, according to a press release from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published this Tuesday evening. Same story for London which, this Tuesday, called for an end to the “unacceptable” violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank against Palestinian civilians.
Three Hezbollah members died in Lebanon
Three members of Hezbollah died in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, as announced by the Lebanese movement. An IDF plane notably “eliminated Ismail Youssef Baz, the commander of the Hezbollah coastal sector”, the Israeli army also indicated in a press release.
According to a source close to the pro-Iranian party, the man was killed in a strike on the village of Aïn Baal, around fifteen kilometers from the Israeli border. Ismail Youssef Baz notably participated in “planning the firing of rockets and anti-tank missiles towards Israel”, according to the Israeli army.
In addition, the IDF announced the deaths of Mohammed Hussein Moustafa Shechory, presented as the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces in charge of rockets and missiles in central and western Lebanon, and of Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlallah, another movement fighter. , in an airstrike in Kfar Dounine, in southern Lebanon. For its part, the Shiite Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah, announced the death of one of its fighters in the strike on Aïn Baal.
Exchange of threats between Iran and Israel continues
This Tuesday, Israel vowed to make Iran pay the price for its unprecedented attack on its territory. In Tehran, President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that “the slightest action” by Israel against “Iran’s interests” would provoke “a severe, widespread and painful response” from his country.
These exchanges come as the international community calls for restraint, since the attack on Saturday April 13. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to show “coolness”, stressing that an escalation was “in no one’s interest”.
According to a Downing Street spokesperson, the head of the British government said Iran had “demonstrated a serious miscalculation and was increasingly isolated on the international stage, with the G7 coordinating a diplomatic response” .
In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for being “the main person” to blame for Iran’s attack on Israel. “Israel’s targeting of the Iranian embassy in Damascus in violation of international law and the Vienna Convention was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said the Turkish president. Since the start of the war in Gaza, President Erdogan has been one of the most virulent critics of Israel, which he has described as a “terrorist state”.