US Forces In Mideast To Use Artificial Intelligence Against Drones

The US CENTCOM in a statement said that the situation was de-escalated with the help of audible warnings and non-lethal use of lasers.

The incident took place on December 5 during a routine transit in international waters. “The Iranian vessel attempted to blind the bridge by shining a spotlight and crossed within 150 yards of the US ships – dangerously close particularly at night,” CENTCOM said.

"The IRGCN’s actions violated international standards of professional and safe maritime behavior, increasing the risk of miscalculation and collision," the statement added.

Iran has engaged in provocative approaches to the US NAVY in the region many times throughout the years, with Americans firing warning shots on a few occasions.

“This dangerous action in international waters is indicative of Iran’s destabilizing activity across the Middle East,” the statement quoted CENTCOM spokesman Col. Joe Buccino as saying.

Expeditionary sea base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans “were conducting a routine transit in international waters” when the Iranian patrol boat approached.

High-ranking Iranian commanders have been praising their navy this week as the true guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf region.

Saudi official news agency SPA is calling Riyadh-Beijing relations a “strategic partnership” encompassing both rising trade and regional security, contrasting with United States officials portraying China as a threatening axis alongside Russia and bemoaning Saudi-Russian cooperation in agreeing oil production targets through Opec+.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi in October said Saudi Arabia was a “priority” for China. While this is due partly to supplying of 1.77 million barrels of Saudi oil a day (bpd) reaching Beijing in the first ten months of 2022 (18 percent of China’s total crude purchases), overall bilateral trade reached $87 billion in 2021 and China is keen to extend infrastructure investment in line with its 149-country Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Saudi Arabia’s plans to diversify away from oil and develop the $500-billion NEOM city in the north west are widely expected to offer significant opportunities for Chinese companies, who are already active in refining and petrochemicals.

Deeping ties with Saudi Arabia has not stopped Beijing continuing as Iran’s main oil buyer, taking between 500,000 and 1 million bpd this year, despite the threat of punitive action by Washington under the ‘maximum pressure’ Iran sanctions introduced in 2018. Both China and Saudi Arabia are uncomfortable by recent US assertions that its foreign policy is based on ‘human rights.’

China has a 25-year cooperation agreement with Iran, reached in 2021, but last month signed a 27-year liquid natural gas (LNG) supply deal with Qatar, which shares with Iran the world’s largest gas-field, the Qatari part known as North Dome and the Iranian part South Pars. Iran has struggled under US ‘maximum pressure’ to develop LNG facilities – the form of gas most suitable for export. French major Total, an LNG specialist, reluctantly pulled out 2018 from a contract to develop phase 11 of South Pars.

‘Leveraging rivalry’

Saudi Arabia, like China, seeks a transactional foreign policy. The Chinese are this week reportedly ready for $30 billion in arms contracts with Riyadh, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s position as the third largest defense spender in the world after the US and China. Riyadh bought 23 percent of all US weapons sold globally 2017-21, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Xi’s visit will also include an inaugural China-Arab Summit, which is expected to include leaders from the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the wider Arab world, including Iraq.

Iran and Saudi Arabia despite a few rounds of exploratory talks still do not have diplomatic relation severed in early 2016. Tehran continues to label Riyadh as an enemy and periodically makes threats against the Sunni power, which considers Shia Iran a threat.

While some Persian Gulf observers continue to insist that nothing has diminished US sway in the region, John Calabrese of the Washington-based Middle East Institute in a briefing published Monday wrote that “Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbors …situated both literally and figurately at the crossroads of intensifying global rivalry between US and China…seek to leverage [that rivalry] to their benefit.”

Trudeau said he did not want Canada’s “extraordinary technological innovations” used in “Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, or Iran’s contributions to that.” He argued that Ottawa had “strict export permits in place for sensitive technology” and would work with Tallyman Wireless to “figure out exactly how items that we’re not supposed to get into the hands of anyone like the Iranian government actually ended up there.”

Canada’s arms exports – which before Moscow’s 2014 Crimea annexation included Russia – are regulated by the Export and Import Permits Act, under which there is a list of ‘approved buyers’. In 2021, 66 percent of Canada’s military sales went to the Middle East, with the lion’s share of $1.75 billion bought by Saudi Arabia.

Many parts used in military drones, however, are readily available and often bought online. The presence of Canadian-made antennae in the Shahed-136 drone was asserted last month in an investigation by Statewatch, a group committed to transparency in government.

Trudeau raised the issue with reporters Monday after a report in the Globe and Mail. Statewatch had cited Ukrainian intelligence claiming the Shahed-136 had parts from over 30 European and American companies, mainly from the United States. Ukraine’s attack Monday on two military bases deep inside Russia used Soviet-era drones, the Kremlin said.

Military drones have been deployed by both sides in the Ukraine war, with Ukrainian forces using mainly US and Turkish drones, or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). The increasingly use of drones in conflicts across the world reflects their low cost compared to missiles or jet-planes.

Sanctions, winter

Canada on December 2 sanctioned Baharestan Kish, an Iranian research company, over alleged involvement in supplying drones to Russia. Ottawa had in November sanctioned two Iranian companies on the same grounds, while the US and European Union listed Iranian entities in October.

With temperatures in Kyiv currently minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) and snow looming, there are stories of the infamous Russian winter playing havoc with sophisticated weapons. The Ukrainian military has reported that Moscow has not deployed Shaheed drones since November 17 as they cannot function in freezing temperatures.

Other Ukrainian officials have, however suggested Moscow has simply run out of stocks. Iran in early November acknowledged it had supplied “a small number” of military drones to Russia before the current phase of conflict broke out with Moscow’s ‘special military operation’ in February. There have been mixed signals in recent days over prospects for peace talks between Russia and the US to end the war.

The Bahrain-based United States Fifth Fleet said in a statement Saturday that it was the “second major illegal weapons seizure within a month" along the maritime route.

“This significant interdiction clearly shows that Iran’s unlawful transfer of lethal aid and destabilizing behavior continues,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command.

“US naval forces remain focused on deterring and disrupting dangerous and irresponsible maritime activity in the region,” he underlined.

The statement also said that the fishing trawler, intercepted Thursday, was transporting “nearly 7,000 rocket fuses and over 2,100 kilograms of propellant used to launch rocket propelled grenades.”

“The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis in Yemen violates UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and international law,” added the statement.

Last month the US navy said it had scuttled a vessel carrying “explosive materials” from Iran to supply the Houthis, with enough power to fuel a dozen ballistic rockets.

The Houthis receive military and political support from Iran in their conflict with other Yemenis, who have been backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2014. Iran has been sharing its missile and drone technology with Yemen’s Houthis and has also supplied other proxy forces, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Aviv Kochavi said Israel had been carrying out its “war between the wars” strategy mainly through a series of airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, in order to prevent the formation of a “Hezbollah 2”.

Israeli officials have rarely admitted their bombing campaign of Iranian targets in Syria.

Kochavi further noted that the Islamic Republic has sought to deploy drones and air defenses to Syria and even building a base called Imam Ali on the border with Iraq near Albukamal.

“Hezbollah has massively increased its power in the last decade and a half… In a sense, Hezbollah has already become Hezbollah 2 and it would like to establish Hezbollah 3 in Syria, while it grooms another Hezbollah in Iraq and in Yemen… Trying to keep them from fully swallowing part of Syria is a major challenge,” Kochavi told the Jerusalem Post.

Iran has been deeply involved in the Syrian civil war for more than a decade, deploying tens of thousands of its own forces as well as hired Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani Shiite fighters, who helped save Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with help from Russia.

However, since 2017 Iran has been trying to set up a presence on the Israeli border, possibly to create a new front to complement what the Lebanese Hezbollah has in southern Lebanon against Israel.