Iranian military officials acknowledged tactical failures during the recent war with Israel while insisting the country's missile capabilities remain largely intact, with a senior Western diplomat stated missile sites may now be relocated deeper into eastern Iran for protection. "If we keep. "We did not think that they would target our commanders and scientists in their own homes along with their families. We miscalculated and admit that we were wrong,"  Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a Revolutionary Guards deputy commander said. Despite strikes that killed dozens of senior commanders, Naghdi claimed "Israel has not destroyed even 3% of our missile launchers," the Financial Times reported.

The Revolutionary Guards recently staged a public weapons exhibition at Tehran's National Aerospace Park, displaying ballistic missiles, hypersonic systems, and attack drones. The display sought to project military strength and reassure citizens following the 12-day war with Israel and the US that exposed significant vulnerabilities. Israeli strikes killed dozens of senior commanders and nuclear scientists, while over 1,000 people died in Iran, according to the Financial Times. Tehran argues its massive missile response forced the conflict to halt.

A 35-year-old accountant named Nasrin stopped before a Sejjil ballistic missile, remembering social media images of the weapon soaring through skies during fighting, the Financial Times reported. "Thanks to these missiles, the US and Israel knelt down before us," she remarked. "Without them, Iran would have become like Gaza."

Last month's presentation formed part of a campaign to convey strength following a war inflicting severe damage on the Islamic republic – and to assure citizens the nation remains combat-ready should necessity arise, according to the Financial Times.

Brigadier General Ali Balali of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, serving as exhibition director, told attendees: "People are seeing these missiles and drones up close, and realise they're locally made weapons to defend the homeland," the Financial Times reported. "Our capabilities place us within the club of nations known for significant missile development."

During months following the 12-day conflict, wherein the US briefly participated before negotiating a ceasefire, numerous Iranians describe existing in a state of "no war, no peace," according to the Financial Times. Iran has prohibited UN inspectors from accessing its most sensitive nuclear installations, which sustained US bombing, and has reached deadlock with Washington over resuming atomic energy program talks, the Financial Times reported. European powers have additionally reimposed sanctions.

These developments have produced mounting anxiety within Iran that renewed combat may prove inevitable rather than hypothetical, according to the Financial Times. "Our missile capability must continue to grow," stated Sara, a 19-year-old psychology student at the aerospace park. "The war could resume at any moment."

Officials insist Iran's military preparedness undergoes swift restoration, the Financial Times reported. Yet the exhibition also represented an attempt to shift public narrative away from vulnerabilities exposed during combat, when Israeli forces eliminated dozens of senior commanders and nuclear scientists in a devastating opening assault. Iranian authorities reported casualties exceeding 1,000.

By launching what it describes as more than 600 missiles in retaliation – the most extensive bombardment Israel has confronted in its history – Tehran argues it compelled the war to cease, the Financial Times reported.

Iranian officials contend the war should be assessed not solely by deaths but by financial costs Israel and the US incurred intercepting relatively inexpensive Iranian munitions and executing long-range aerial operations, including with expensive precision guided missiles, the Financial Times reported.

Shahed drones, utilized by Russia in its Ukraine war, received prominent display, alongside multiple other drones reverse engineered from US and Israeli models Iran captured, the Financial Times reported. Still, the Islamic republic has also sought to address its shortcomings. Domestically-manufactured radar systems failed to prevent Israeli jets and drones from striking Tehran. In recent YouTube interviews with hardline director Javad Mogouei, ministers and military commanders admitted Israeli tactics caught them unprepared.

"We were taken by surprise by the way the enemy operated," stated Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a Revolutionary Guards deputy commander during the war, according to the Financial Times. "We did not think that they would target our commanders and scientists in their own homes along with their families. We miscalculated and admit that we were wrong."

The most embarrassing moment occurred with Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran in July 2024, when Iran declined to retaliate against Israel, the Financial Times reported. Officials now acknowledge this reflected not strategic restraint but an uncomfortable reality: Tehran recognized it lacked sufficient capabilities to respond effectively and required time for rebuilding.

Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini, spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, informed Mogouei that Iran had worked to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of its missiles during subsequent months, according to the Financial Times.

"We are working around the clock to reach a new level of readiness," Naeini declared. "Without long-range ballistic missiles, this war would have lasted eight years [like the war with Iraq], not 12 days. It would have taken us a year, not hours, to go on the offensive."

A senior Western diplomat in Tehran stated missile sites may now relocate deeper into eastern Iran – farther from Israeli and American aircraft – for enhanced protection, the Financial Times reported. "If we keep the enemy's targets beyond its access, there won't be another war," Naghdi stated. "Their costs must exceed their achievements."

Western diplomats are also monitoring for indications whether the republic seeks foreign assistance to rebuild its military strength, the Financial Times reported. The critical question, as one expressed it, involves whether nations like Russia, China and Pakistan are offering support to Iran.

For many aerospace park visitors, the conclusion proved evident: Iran's future depended not merely on protecting but strengthening its weapons program, according to the Financial Times. "If we put aside our missile programme, we will be attacked more severely next time," stated Keyvan, a 27-year-old computer engineer. "After the war, we realise more than ever how invaluable these missiles are."

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Mizan Online reported that Pedram Madani was convicted of spying for the "Zionist regime". Following his arrest, a comprehensive legal process culminated in the Supreme Court affirming his death sentence, which was promptly carried out.

Madani allegedly passed classified data to Mossad agents. The judiciary claimed he held clandestine meetings with Israeli operatives in Brussels and other international locations.

"After identification, arrest, and judicial proceedings against Pedram Madani, who was spying in favour of the Zionist regime, and following the complete process of criminal procedure and the final confirmation and upholding of the verdict by the Supreme Court, he was brought to justice and executed," the judiciary's Mizan Online reported.

Iran alleged that Madani's traveled to Israel between 2020–2021 before his apprehension. The judiciary also convicted Madani of accumulating "illicit wealth" through euros and bitcoin payments from Israel. These transactions supposedly underscored his alleged ties to Mossad.

Madani faced charges of waging war against God and "corruption on earth," resulting in his execution for "espionage on behalf of the Zionist regime's intelligence service (Mossad)." The judiciary portrayed his actions as a grave threat to Iran's national security. In April, Iran executed Mohsen Langarneshin for his alleged role in the 2022 assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, supposedly on orders from the Mossad.

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An American warship fired warning shots when vessels of Iran's paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came too close to a patrol in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy said Wednesday.

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The Navy released black-and-white footage of the encounter Monday night in international waters of the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf. In it, lights can be seen in the distance and what appears to be a single gunshot can be heard, with a tracer round racing across the top of the water.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the incident.

The Navy said the USS Firebolt fired the warning shots after three fast-attack IRGC vessels came within 68 yards of it and the US Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Baranoff.

"The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices, but the [IRGC] vessels continued their close-range maneuvers," said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Mideast-based 5th Fleet. "The crew of Firebolt then fired warning shots, and the [IRGC] vessels moved away to a safe distance from the US vessels."

She called on the IRGC to "operate with due regard for the safety of all vessels as required by international law."

"US naval forces continue to remain vigilant and are trained to act in a professional manner, while our commanding officers retain the inherent right to act in self-defense," she said.

The incident Monday marked the second time the Navy accused the IRGC of operating in an "unsafe and unprofessional" manner this month alone after tense encounters between the forces had dropped in recent years.

Footage released Tuesday by the US Navy showed an incident that occurred on April 2 of a ship commanded by the IRGC cut in front of the USCGC Monomoy, causing the Coast Guard vessel to come to an abrupt stop with its engine smoking.

The IRGC also did the same with another Coast Guard vessel, the USCGC Wrangell, Rebarich said. Such close passes risk collisions.

The interaction marked the first "unsafe and unprofessional" incident involving the Iranians since April 15, 2020, Rebarich said. However, Iran had largely stopped such incidents in 2018 and nearly in the entirety of 2019, she said.

In 2017, the Navy recorded 14 instances of what it describes as "unsafe and or unprofessional" interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016, and 23 in 2015.

The incidents at sea almost always involve the IRGC, which reports only to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Typically, they involve Iranian speedboats armed with deck-mounted machine guns and rocket launchers test-firing weapons or shadowing American aircraft carriers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.

The incident comes as Iran negotiates with world powers in Vienna over Tehran and Washington returning to the 2015 nuclear deal. It also follows a series of incidents across the Mideast attributed to a shadow war between Iran and Israel, which includes attacks on regional shipping and sabotage at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

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Iran's paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday held a military exercise involving ballistic missiles and drones in the country's central desert, Iran's state TV reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear program and a US pressure campaign against the Islamic republic.

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In the first phase of the drill Friday morning, the Guard's aerospace division launched several surface-to-surface ballistic missiles against simulated enemy bases, state TV reported. It said the drill included Zolfaghar and Dezful solid-fuel ballistic missiles. Bomb-carrying drones were also deployed. The Dezful, a version of the Zolfaghar, has a 700-kilometer (430-mile) range and 450-kilogram (992-pound) warhead.

Iran has missile capability of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), far enough to reach Israel and US military bases in the region. Last January, after the US killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, Tehran retaliated by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, reportedly resulting in brain concussion injuries to dozens of them.

In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills. On Wednesday, Iran's navy held a two-day short-range missile drill in the Gulf of Oman. On Saturday, the IRGC held a naval parade in the Persian Gulf. A week earlier, Iran held a massive drone maneuver across half the country.

Tensions are again rising in the waning days of the administration of US President Donald Trump, as Iran ramps up pressure on the West over the US sanctions campaign against the Islamic republic.

Trump in 2018 withdrew the US from Iran's nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, over Iran's ballistic missile program and belligerent actions in the region.

When the US then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal's limits on its nuclear development.

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Iran fired cruise missiles Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported, under surveillance of what appeared to be a US nuclear submarine dispatched to the region amid heightened tensions between the countries.

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Helicopter footage of the exercise released by Iran's navy showed what resembled an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine, the USS Georgia, which the US Navy last month said had been sent to the Persian Gulf – a rare announcement aimed at underscoring American military might in the region.

Iran's navy did not identify the submarine but warned the boat to steer clear of the area, where missiles were being launched from land units and ships in the gulf and the northern part of the Indian Ocean. When asked for comment on the reported submarine sighting, Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, responded: "We don't talk about submarine operations."

Footage of the reported "foreign submarine" that entered the #Iran|ian Navy's exercise area earlier today.

Cc @CovertShores and other sub folks. pic.twitter.com/167H8r7ap4

— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) January 14, 2021

Later Thursday, Iran's state-run media claimed that a "foreign" vessel had "intended to approach the naval drill" and departed soon after the Iranian Navy's warning, without elaborating.

The two-day drill began on Wednesday with the unveiling of the largest vessel in the Iranian Navy, the latest in a series of Iranian military exercises during the waning days of the administration of US President Donald Trump. Over the weekend, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held a naval parade in the Persian Gulf shortly after seizing a South Korean tanker in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Last week, Iran deployed unmanned aircraft to stage a large-scale drone maneuver across half the country.

Iran's state TV broadcast footage of the missile launches on Thursday but didn't provide their range or other details. In July, Iran said it test-fired cruise missiles with a range of some 280 kilometers (some 275 miles).

"Enemies should know that any violation and invasion of Iranian marine borders will be targeted by the cruise missiles from both coast and sea," said Adm. Hamzeh Ali Kaviani, the spokesman for Thursdays' exercise.

Tensions are rising as Iran ramps up pressure on the West over the Trump administration's sanctions campaign against the Islamic republic.

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Iran's paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a heavy warship Thursday capable of carrying helicopters, drones and missile launchers amid ongoing tensions with the United States.

Photographs of the ship, named after slain IRGC naval commander Abdollah Roudaki, showed it carrying truck-launched surface-to-surface missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. It also carried four small fast boats, the kind the IRGC routinely uses in the Persian Gulf. Sailors manned deck-mounted machine guns.

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The IRGC said the ship has a length of 150 meters (492 feet). By comparison, a US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has a length of 332 meters (1,092 feet). The Guard's ship does not have a runway, but includes a landing pad for a helicopter.

The commander of the Guard's navy, Adm. Ali Reza Tangsiri, suggested his forces wanted to move beyond the waters of the Gulf into deep-water patrolling. Typically, the IRGC covers the waters of the Persian Gulf, while Iran's navy patrols the Gulf of Oman and beyond.

"Presence and assignments in the Indian Ocean is our right," Tangsiri said.

The ship appears to be an answer to US Navy patrols in the region by its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. US aircraft carriers routinely travel through Mideast waters. Iran sees those missions as a threat.

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Pompeo in a statement called it a "major expansion" of the Iran metals-related sanctions administered by the State Department, allowing Washington to blacklist those who knowingly transfer the materials to Iran.

"Iran's nuclear, ballistic missile, and military programs pose a grave threat to international peace and security," Pompeo said in the statement.

Pompeo also said he was firm in his determination that Iran's main security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, controls Iran's construction sector.

As a result, sanctions may still be imposed on those who knowingly transfer certain materials, including graphite or raw or semi-finished metals, to or from Iran to be used in connection with the Islamic republic's construction sector, Pompeo said.

The materials, he had determined are used in connection with Iran's nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs included aluminum powder with purity above 98%.

Reuters reported in June that Iran Alumina Company's aluminum complex near the city of Jajarm is also home to a secret facility, set up by the IRGC, that has produced powder for use in Iran's missile program.

Aluminum powder is a key ingredient in solid-fuel propellants used to launch missiles.

The United States has previously targeted Iran's metals sector with sanctions in an effort to slash Iranian revenues.

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Interruptions caused by the virus, including border closings to prevent the spread of the disease, have drastically cut Tehran's cash supplies to the militia groups in recent months, said three Iraqi paramilitary group commanders and a regional official familiar with Iran's activities in Iraq. The funds from Iran are typically allocated for military operations related to the paramilitary groups' activities such as fighting Iran's opponents, including attacks against US targets, the three commanders said.

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Since the coronavirus hit earlier this year, Iran has reduced to $2-3 million from $4.5-5 million in monthly payments to each of the four top militia groups in Iraq, said one of the commanders, who belongs to a powerful paramilitary group. The reduced funding has impacted operations of the militia groups and is forcing them to seek alternative sources of funding for military operations and weapons such as from their own business interests, the commanders said.

Iraq shares a border with Iran, a coronavirus epicenter in the Middle East with more than 11,000 reported deaths.

Disruptions brought on by the pandemic come on top of a squeeze on Tehran's financing of the paramilitary groups over the past two years caused by US sanctions on Iran, said the three commanders and the regional official. The regional official said Tehran's funding of the groups has dropped by millions of dollars. The sanctions combined with the coronavirus crisis and a decline in oil prices have helped force Iran, which faces a large budget deficit, to limit its military spending including on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran's linking of its paramilitary proxies in a Shiite axis of power across Iraq and through Syria to the Mediterranean has been crucial to its strategy of countering US influence.

US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook agreed that US sanctions were having an impact on Iran's funding of paramilitary groups, saying it was "further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is successfully depriving the [Iranian] regime of revenue to fund its terror proxies and other destabilizing actions across the region." He did not discuss the degree of impact.

The squeeze on militia financing also follows the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January. The loss of the senior military commander, who created an Iran-aligned axis of influence across the Middle East and steered political allies in Iraq, has dealt a blow to the operations of paramilitary groups and Iran's broader aims in Iraq, according to the three commanders as well as the regional official and a senior Iranian diplomat.

The Iran-backed paramilitary groups helped the Iraqi government defeat the Islamic State group in 2017. They have dominated the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi state-controlled institution that is an umbrella grouping of militias, including and smaller Shiite groups that object to Iranian dominance. The PMF was formally integrated into Iraq's armed forces and has led many security operations.

A PMF spokesman, Muhannad al-Aqabi, declined to comment on any issues to do with groups backed directly by Iran. The PMF receives funding and equipment through official channels via the Iraqi state, even if the ultimate source of the money is often Iran, Aqabi said.

A spokesman at the public relations office of the IRGC denied that Iran finances the militias. "The Islamic republic has always supported the oppressed people in the region and beyond and our policy has not changed. But we do not provide financial support to those who fight against America's hegemony in our region."

When asked whether Iran's financial and military support of Iraqi paramilitaries had declined, Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York, said: "These rumors are designed to sow discord between the two nations and are doomed to fail." He added that Iran is "fully supportive" of the Iraqi government and that the two countries "engage closely in all matters of mutual interest" but that Iran doesn't interfere in its neighbor's internal affairs.

A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister's office wasn't immediately available for comment. Other Iraqi government officials couldn't be reached or didn't respond to requests for comment.

Tehran has long seen its paramilitary partners as a way of exerting its presence in Iraq and countering the influence of Washington, a critical ally for Baghdad.

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US President Donald Trump started to re-impose sanctions in 2018, including measures targeting the IRGC, in an attempt to curb Tehran's missile and nuclear programs and diminish the Islamic republic's influence in the Middle East. Iran has said the US sanctions are illegal and hurt the Iranian people.

Prior to the US re-imposing sanctions, Tehran was sending $12 million to $15 million a month to its militia allies in Iraq, a major OPEC oil producer and one of the United States' most important allies in the Middle East, said the commander and another member of a powerful militia.

In addition to interruptions to funding from Iran, the three paramilitary commanders said border closures and the pandemic had reduced the flow of other types of support, including ammunition and training for Iraqi fighters sent to Syria to support President Bashar Assad in the multi-sided conflict.

The training, said the second commander, included street fighting, the use of anti-armor rockets, and the use of drones to triangulate enemy positions. That has all stopped, he said.

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The four international petrochemical and petroleum companies have collectively transferred the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of exports from the National Iranian Oil Company, an entity instrumental in Iran's petroleum and petrochemical industries, which help to finance Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force and its terrorist proxies, said the US Treasury Department in a statement.

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"Iran's petrochemical and petroleum sectors are primary sources of funding for the Iranian regime's global terrorist activities and enable its persistent use of violence against its own people," said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Thursday's action targets Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd., a Hong Kong-based broker with branches in Iran, United Arab Emirates, China and Germany.

In 2019, Triliance ordered the transfer of the equivalent of millions of dollars to NIOC as payment for Iranian petrochemicals, crude oil and petroleum products shipped to the United Arab Emirates and China after the expiration of any applicable significant reduction exceptions, according to the Treasury Department

In facilitating these shipments, Triliance worked to conceal the Iranian origin of these products and also facilitated the sale of millions of dollars' worth of petroleum products involving Naftiran Intertrade Company, a subsidiary of NIOC, to companies in China, according to the department.

Additionally, Triliance Kish Petrochemical Company, which is the Iran-based branch of Triliance, recently changed its name and operates as Tiba Parsian Kish Petrochemical. It was also one of the entitles sanctioned on Jan. 23, along with Hong Kong-based Sage Energy HK Limited, Jiaxiang Industry Hong Kong, Ltd., Shandong Qiwangwa Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Shanghai-based Peakview Industry Co. Limited and Dubai-based Beneathco DMCC.

Triliance executive Ali Bayandarian and Shandong Qiwangwa executive Zhiqing Wang were also just sanctioned by the United States.

The actions exemplify the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran since withdrawing the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, reimposing sanctions lifted under it, along with enacting new financial penalties on the regime.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The slain commander, Abdolhossein Mojaddami, was gunned down in front of his home in the town of Darkhoein.

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The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used for internal security and other tasks, such as violent suppression of civilian protests.

Mojaddami, who headed the local Basij force in Darkhoein, was said to be an associate of the recently slain general, Qassem Soleimani.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, the official news agency of Iran, two gunmen on a motorcycle, armed with an assault rifle and a hunting rifle, ambushed Mojaddami. Other Iranian media outlets said the gunmen's faces were covered with masks and that four shots were fired.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination nor has a motive been established, Iranian media reports said, but Basij units had been involved in violent clashes with demonstrators in the area in November in which many protesters were wounded and killed.

Mojaddami's killing is seen as another blow to the IRGC, following the death of Soleimani earlier this month in a US drone strike in Iraq.

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