Iranian Video Threatens Drone Strikes on Israel, US Targets

November 1, 2022

by: Ilse Strauss

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 | In a video posted to its official Telegram channel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to rain down the wrath of its drone fleet on Israeli and US targets in the Middle East.

Set to the soundtrack of rousing music building to a crescendo, the clip opens with scenes from two well-known sites in Israel—the harbor in Haifa and the beachfront in Tel Aviv—helpfully described as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” in both English and Arabic subtitles.

The scene then changes to an America flag proudly waving over what appears to be a military base somewhere in a Middle Eastern desert. The clip goes on to identify the location as “CENTCOM Terrorist Bases,” referring to the United States Central Command.

The third location is harder to pinpoint, showing an animation of a building with drawings of Iranian heroes on the side wall and a row of Iranian flags streaming on the breeze. The clip identifies it as “MEK Terrorist Group Training Camp,” which refers to an exiled Iranian dissident group, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq.

The camera then shifts again, this time showing what appears to the Iranian soldiers in front of screens displaying satellite images of the Israeli, American and MEK sites. The message is clear: these are the targets in the Iranians’ crosshairs.

As the theatrical soundtrack builds in intensity, the camera pivots to what appears to be the IRGC’s attempt to intimidate with its impressive arsenal: vast warehouses filled with row upon row of state-of-the-art drones and other weapons.

As the music reaches a climax and a dramatic silence falls, the IRGC’s threat appears onscreen in English and Arabic: “It is only our will that keeps us from firing.”

Theatrical clips boasting military prowess and barely-contained might are not a new tool in the Iranian kit. In fact, the IRGC has proven itself quite adapt at barking ferociously without the bite. However, events over the past few months have prompted Israel and her allies to take the threat of Iranian drones a bit more seriously.

In recent months, Iranian drones were used in a number of attacks on US military targets in the Middle East, the Times of Israel reports. And in recent weeks, Russia reportedly used Iranian-made “suicide” drones to attack civilians as well as energy and infrastructure sites in Ukraine, a harbinger of warming ties between Moscow and Tehran.

Then, in the aftermath of what is believed to be Iranian drones sent by Russian decision makers to rain down death of Ukrainian civilians, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei boasted that the West now had to take Tehran’s missile and drone technologies seriously. In fact, according to Khamenei, drones represent Iran’s pride.

There is no doubt that the IRGC’s video production is as dramatic and as theatrical as ever, a strategy that was easy to dismiss as bluff and buster in the past. But there is also no doubt that the powers-that-be with a stake in the Middle East are bound to pay closer attention now.

Posted on November 1, 2022

Source: (Bridges for Peace, November 1, 2022)

Photo Credit: Reza Dehshiri/javanonline.ir/commons.wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia