Retaliation to Drone Downing: US conducted cyberattacks on Iran targets

The United States launched cyberattacks against Iranian missile control systems and a spy network after Tehran downed an American surveillance drone, according to US media reports.

US president Donald Trump secretly authorised US Cyber Command to carry out a retaliatory attack on Iran, The Washington Post reported Saturday, shortly after the US president pledged to hit the Islamic republic with major new sanctions.

The attack crippled computers used to control rocket and missile launches, according to the Post, while Yahoo News said a spying group responsible for tracking ships in the Gulf was also targeted.

Tehran is yet to react to the reports, Iran’s Fars news agency said yesterday.

It added that it was “still not clear whether the attacks were effective or not,” and suggested the US media reports were a “bluff meant to affect public opinion and regain lost reputation for the White House” following the downing of its drone.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted a map yesterday showing a previous border incident with a “spy drone” encroaching its airspace in late May.

He said the reconnaissance aircraft, a US-made MQ9 Reaper -- also widely used for carrying out military strikes -- had encroached on Iranian territory on May 26 despite being sent several warnings.

Trump called off a planned retaliatory military strike Friday, saying the response wouldn’t be “proportionate”, with Tehran warning Washington that any attack would see its interests across the Middle East go up in flames.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton yesterday warned Tehran against misinterpreting the last-minute cancellation.

“Neither Iran nor any other hostile actor should mistake US prudence and discretion for weakness,” he said ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The downing of the US drone came after a series of attacks on tankers in the congested shipping lanes of the Gulf, that Washington has blamed on Iran, exacerbated already-tense relations between the two countries.

Iran has denied responsibility for those attacks.

Trump, who spent Saturday huddling with his advisors at Camp David, initially told reporters that he was keen to be Iran’s “best friend” -- if the country agreed to renounce nuclear weapons.

“When they agree to that, they’re going to have a wealthy country. They’re going to be so happy, and I’m going to be their best friend,” he told reporters.

Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon, and says its program is for civilian purposes.

A multinational accord reached by Tehran and world powers in 2015 sought to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.

But Trump left that agreement more than a year ago and has imposed a robust slate of punitive economic sanctions designed to choke off Iranian oil sales and cripple its economy -- one he now plans to expand.

“We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday,” tweeted Trump, who has also deployed additional troops to the Middle East.

“I look forward to the day that Sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again - The sooner the better!” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added: “When the Iranian regime decides to forgo violence and meet our diplomacy with diplomacy, it knows how to reach us. Until then, our diplomatic isolation and economic pressure campaign against the regime will intensify.” But lest anyone think he was entirely ruling out military action, Trump tweeted Saturday evening that “I never called the strike against Iran ‘BACK,’ as people are incorrectly reporting, I just stopped it from going forward at this time!” 

‘POWDER KEG’

A top Iranian military official warned Washington against any strikes.

“Firing one bullet towards Iran will set fire to the interests of America and its allies” in the region, armed forces general staff spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi told the Tasnim news agency.

“If the enemy -- especially America and its allies in the region -- make the military mistake of shooting the powder keg on which America’s interests lie, the region will be set on fire,” Shekarchi warned.

Following his comments, Iran said it had executed a contractor for the defense ministry’s aerospace organization who had been convicted of spying for the United States.

A top Iranian diplomat expressed disappointment yesterday after meeting a minister from Britain’s Foreign Office amid escalating regional tensions, saying the talks were “repetitive”, state news agency IRNA reported.

Minister of State for the Middle East Andrew Murrison had the “usual talking points”, said Kamal Kharazi, the head of the Strategic Council of Foreign Relations at Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

The US special envoy for Iran yesterday urged “all nations to use their diplomatic effort to urge Iran to de-escalate and meet diplomacy with diplomacy” amid soaring tensions in the Gulf.

“We are not interested in... military conflict against Iran, we have enhanced our forces’ postures in the region for purely defensive purposes,” Brian Hook told journalists in Kuwait City.