{"id":19598,"date":"2022-10-21T17:44:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T22:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=19598"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:27:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:27:04","slug":"irans-regime-drones-targeting-civilians-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/2022\/10\/21\/irans-regime-drones-targeting-civilians-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Regime Drones Targeting Civilians in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom imposed\u00a0new sanctions<\/a>\u00a0on three Iranian military officials and one defense manufacturer on Thursday, a day after British, French, and American representatives to the United Nations highlighted Iran\u2019s ongoing provision of military drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine. Iran predictably denied the accusations levied in that Security Council meeting, but Ukraine has urged experts to visit the country and directly examine the evidence of Iranian manufacture in components recovered from the sites of Russian drone attacks.<\/p>\n

The meeting took place on the same day as a number of kamikaze\u00a0drones struck\u00a0Ukrainian power plants, amidst what has been described as a week-long flurry of similar attacks. The drones are the product of the Iranian regime similarly leaning into tactics of asymmetric warfare, in absence of the ability to modernize the nation\u2019s air force amidst punishing multi-lateral sanctions.<\/p>\n

That trend has been ongoing for years. Last year, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a\u00a0press conference\u00a0to warn about the expansion of the regime\u2019s drone manufacturing, and to highlight its likely impact on the paramilitary capabilities of Iran-backed proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthi militants.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of drones and other advanced military technology eventually allowed Houthi attacks to penetrate deep into Saudi territory. This, however, allowed for the recovery and analysis of components that left absolutely no doubt about the Iranian origins of the weaponry.<\/p>\n

This process stands to be repeated in the wake of Ukraine\u2019s invitation for military experts to visit, but this should not be necessary in order to disregard the Iranian regime\u2019s denial of culpability for attacks on Ukrainian power plants and other civilian targets.<\/p>\n

While the particular use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the present conflict is used against Ukraine, the tactics currently on display are akin to those that Iran has used or promoted in a number of proxy conflicts since ramping up its drone manufacturing program. During last year\u2019s\u00a0NCRI press conference\u00a0on the topic, the deputy director of the NCRI\u2019s Washington office identified its finds as evidence of Tehran\u2019s growing effort to \u201cstep up terrorism and warmongering to destabilize the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jafarzadeh went on to say that \u201cthis is in line with the regime\u2019s nuclear defiance and its repression at home,\u201d an observation that is arguably even more significant today with respect to the expansion of terrorist and warmongering tactics to a war being perpetuated by Tehran\u2019s ally in eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

More than a year ago, Alireza Jafarzadeh outlined the potential global impact of Iran\u2019s expanding drone program before declaring, \u201cIt is time for the US, Europe, and the countries of the region to adopt a firm policy by expanding sanctions and holding [The regime\u2019s President Ebrahim] Raisi and [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei to account until Tehran abandons its rogue behavior and ends human rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

An accompanying statement from the NCRI stated that any future dealings with the Iranian regime should be contingent upon a halt to malign activities including the violent suppression of dissent, promotion of regional instability, and activities related to the manufacture of advanced UAVs and\u00a0ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

Such a commitment from Western powers is more imperative today than it has ever been before. The clerical regime\u2019s simultaneous commitment to terrorism against its own people and the people of Ukraine should deprive it of an opportunity to negotiate with Western countries or to generally be treated as a normal government. With each successive development, Tehran makes it more and more apparent that it is anything but normal, and is eminently deserving of whatever isolation and pressure the international community can bring to bear upon it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom imposed\u00a0new sanctions\u00a0on three Iranian military officials and one defense manufacturer on Thursday, a day after British, French, and American representatives to the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":19599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20129,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19598\/revisions\/20129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}