Iran threatens to make use of ‘weapons it has by no means used’ in ‘painful and extreme’ response if Israel launches retaliatory airstrikes – amid fears lacklustre drone barrage will additional push Tehran to develop NUKES

Iran has threatened to make use of ‘weapons it has by no means used’ in a ‘painful and extreme’ response if Israel launches airstrikes in retaliation to Tehran’s weekend salvo.

Israel earlier vowed that it’s going to reply to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile assault, amid fears that the Center East is teetering on the sting of an all-our conflict.

Because the West urged for calmer heads to prevail within the Jewish state, Iranian Parliament’s Nationwide Safety Committee Abolfazl Amoue said that Iran is ‘ready to make use of a weapon that now we have by no means used’ if Israel responds additional.

Talking on Monday, he stated Israel ought to contemplate its subsequent steps and ‘act properly.’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi additionally warned Israel it can face a ‘painful response’ if it takes the ‘slightest motion’ in response to his nation’s assault.

The threats increase fears that Iran’s lacklustre drone and missile barrage – 99 p.c of which was intercepted by Israel and its allies – might additional push Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has a number of nuclear analysis websites, two uranium mines, a analysis reactor and uranium processing services – together with three uranium enrichment vegetation.

A UN report in 2007 discovered that Iran had halted an alleged nuclear weapons programme in 2003, and a report from the Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA) in 2018 stated it had discovered no proof of nuclear weapons exercise after 2009.

In 2015, Iran signed as much as the Joint Complete Plan of Motion – or Iran Nuclear Deal – together with international locations together with the US, UK, France, Russia and China, imposing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear services.

Nevertheless, the settlement took a success in 2018 when the US – below president Donald Trump – withdrew and imposed new sanctions on Iran below a ‘most stress’ coverage, basically reducing Iran off from the worldwide monetary system.

In November 2023, an IAEA report estimated Iran’s uranium stockpile was 22 occasions bigger than the restrict agreed upon within the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.

In December, the UN’s watchdog warned that Iran had escalated the speed at which it’s enriching uranium to as much as 60 per cent purity, ranges near weapons-grade.

The report stated Iran has sufficient uranium enriched to as much as 60 per cent purity for 3 atom bombs by the Worldwide Atomic Power Company’s definition. 

Its leaders have lengthy maintained it ‘doesn’t want’ nuclear weapons and is just enriching uranium for peaceable functions.

Nevertheless, for 4 many years, the Islamic Republic’s rulers have pledged to destroy Israel, and Tehran’s newest menace once more raises the spectre of a nuclear-armed Iran.

In the meantime, Tel Aviv has labored to stymie Iran’s nuclear weapons programme – together with the suspected assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

United Nations nuclear watchdog chief expressed issues on Monday about Israel probably focusing on Iranian nuclear services in retaliation, as he introduced inspections paused on Sunday and Monday would resume nonetheless.

IAEA Director Normal Rafael Grossi stated Iran closed its nuclear services quickly over ‘safety concerns’ and that whereas they reopened on Monday, he stored IAEA inspectors away ’till we see that the scenario is totally calm.’

When requested about the potential for an Israel strike on Iranian nuclear services, Grossi stated: ‘We’re all the time involved about this chance.’ 

He urged ‘excessive restraint.’

Chatting with MailOnline on Monday earlier than Iran’s newest menace, Justin Crump – British military veteran and CEO of world danger evaluation agency Sibylline, pointed to the nuclear menace posed by Iran when discussing Israel’s potential responses.

‘In the back of everybody’s minds, although, is the nuclear subject,’ he stated.

‘Iran has proven it may and can strike at Israel and people who have all the time held issues a few nuclear functionality might be talking loudly within the coming days.’

Along with its potential nuclear weapons programme, Iran has an unlimited array of missiles and different weapons in its arsenal that it might use to strike Israel.

Saturday’s assault already demonstrated some such weapons, together with cruise missiles and kamikaze drones – the likes of which have additionally been seen in Ukraine after Iran despatched Russia Shahed 136 drones for use in its persevering with invasion there.

The truth is, with greater than 3,000 ballistic missiles – based on a US estimate – Iran has one of many largest missile stockpiles within the Center East, and is believed to have 9 forms of missiles with sufficient vary to achieve Israel’s territory.

What’s extra, Iranian authorities unveiled what the Tehran regime billed as its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile final June.

Hypersonic missiles are outlined as a missile that may journey 5 occasions the pace of sound, making them extremely arduous to detect and intercept.

Along with its personal stockpile, Iran additionally has a number of proxies throughout the area prepared to do its bidding. These embrace Hamas in Gaza – who attacked Israel on October 7 sparking the on-going disaster, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the highly effective Hezbollah.

In their very own proper, Hezbollah – primarily based in Lebanon on Israel’s northern border – is a strong preventing pressure in itself.

Financed by Iran and skilled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the group’s chief has claimed to have 100,000 skilled fighters who’ve tanks and an unlimited weapons armoury at its disposal, a lot of which is maintained in neighbouring Syria.

Iran’s first-ever direct assault on Israel, which started on Saturday, was in response to an April 1 air strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus, extensively blamed on Israel.

The strike levelled the five-storey consular annexe of the Iranian embassy and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

‘We firmly declare that the slightest motion towards Iran’s pursuits will certainly be met with a extreme, in depth and painful response,’ Iran’s President Raisi stated in a name late Monday with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Raisi reiterated that Iran was performing in ‘self-defence’, saying the operation focused Israeli bases used to hold out the consulate strike, a press release from his workplace stated.

He criticised the assist of some Western authorities for Israel.

Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant Normal Herzi Halevi vowed Monday to answer the unprecedented assault, even after appeals for restraint poured in from world leaders fearing wider regional battle.

‘This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and UAVs into the territory of the State of Israel might be met with a response,’ Halevi informed troops on the Nevatim airbase, which was hit in Iran’s Saturday evening barrage.

The Israeli military has stated the overwhelming majority of the weapons had been shot down – with the assistance of the US and different allies – and the assault brought about solely minimal injury.

However leaks from Israel’s conflict cupboard have reportedly urged {that a} ‘painful’ revenge strike on Iran is being deliberate that won’t trigger mass casualties, although hardliners have demanded that Netanyahu reveals that it’s prepared to ‘go berserk’.

‘All people agrees that Israel should reply,’ an Israeli official informed the Washington Submit. ‘Methods to reply, when to reply, is the query.’ 

As Benjamin Netanyahu continues to debate what retaliation it can unleash, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is anticipated to make use of a telephone name with the Israeli premier immediately to induce him to point out ‘restraint’. 

However main voices in defence, together with revered former minister Ben Wallace, have urged Western leaders to assist Israel in its response to ‘bullies’ like Iran – and to even stand as much as the regime themselves if obligatory.

As Benjamin Netanyahu walks a ‘tightrope’ between escalation and deterrence, former defence secretary Wallace didn’t mince his phrases of warning.

‘The one solution to cope with a bully is to retaliate,’ he stated. 

‘The one possibility when Iran and Russia hit, I’ve concluded, is to hit again twice as arduous and never cease till they get the message.’

Regardless of the unprecedented scale of Iran’s weekend assault, specialists have stated it uncovered Iran’s ‘lacklustre’ arsenal, signalling how its outdated plane and defences can be no match for Israel’s within the occasion of full-scale conflict.

‘I believe the assault, which was designed to be spectacular however not deadly, actually places on show the boundaries to Iran’s deterrence,’ Ali Vaez, who heads the Iran Challenge at Worldwide Disaster Group.

He added that if Iran’s regional deterrence is diminished, Tehran ‘is more likely to contemplate the final word deterrent, which comes within the type of nuclear weapons,’ including ‘they’ve by no means been nearer’.

Iran might be searching for to replenish on trendy plane and weapons with assist from Russia, based on a Washington Submit report final evening, which urged that Moscow has made pledges to its ally to assist safe its defence towards Israel.

Citing intelligence officers, the paper reported that Russia is ‘advancing’ agreements negotiated in secret to provide Iran with Su-35 fighter-bombers, which might assist to dramatically improve the ageing Iranian air pressure.

Moscow additionally promised technical assist with Iranian spy satellites and rocket-building help with the intention to launch extra satellites, the officers are reported to have stated. 

Rumblings concerning the IRGC turning into a terrorist organisation within the UK have been ongoing for months now, and for the reason that assault Mr Sunak has come below mounting stress to designate Iran’s navy as a terrorist group following its assault on Israel.

The Prime Minister condemned Tehran as a ‘despotic regime’ within the wake of its unprecedented missile blitz on the weekend.

Mr Sunak praised RAF pilots who helped shoot down greater than 300 drones and missiles fired at Israel by Iran on Saturday evening – and stated that defending Israel’s safety was a ‘non-negotiable’ precedence for the UK.

However he confronted calls from each senior Tories and Labour to take more durable motion towards Tehran, together with formally proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. 

Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely backed the transfer, saying Iran was ‘a menace to the UK as properly’. 

She informed LBC: ‘Possibly the UK might be subsequent with these form of drones… they will not hesitate to try this right here.’

Within the Commons yesterday, Mr Sunak stated: ‘With this assault Iran has as soon as once more proven its true colors. They’re intent on sowing chaos… on additional destabilising the Center East. We’re working urgently with our allies to de-escalate the scenario and stop additional bloodshed.

‘We wish to see calmer heads prevail and we’re directing all our diplomatic efforts to that finish.’

Mr Sunak additionally acknowledged that the behaviour of Iran, together with the actions of the IRGC, ‘poses a major menace to the protection and safety of the UK’.

The IRGC operates as an elite navy pressure for Iran’s regime and works intently with Hamas and Hezbollah, which have already been designated as terrorist teams. Proscribing the IRGC would squeeze its potential to function within the UK by making it a felony offence to cope with it or advertise. It might additionally successfully label Iran a terrorist state.

However Whitehall sources warned that proscribing the IRGC would make it not possible to speak to the organisation instantly, eradicating a helpful diplomatic again channel.

The transfer is being resisted by Overseas Secretary Lord Cameron, who has spoken of the necessity to have ‘diplomatic channels as a path to de-escalation’, together with on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Former residence secretary Suella Braverman urged the PM to ‘put the UK’s safety first’, including: ‘We’ve recognized for years that the IRGC is the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism.’ Sir Iain Duncan Smith informed the PM: ‘All roads lead again to Tehran with regards to the horrible violence and wars within the Center East.’

Labour additionally backed more durable motion towards the IRGC. Sir Keir Starmer stated Iran was ‘a regime that sponsors terror throughout the Center East and past, that murders and represses its personal folks, and helps Putin’s conflict efforts in Ukraine’.