A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization, suggested on Thursday that the Iranian regime could reassess its position on nuclear weapons amid warnings of an Israeli military strike in response to Tehran’s unprecedented direct attack against Israel.

“The threats of the Zionist regime [Israel] against Iran’s nuclear facilities make it possible to review our nuclear doctrine and deviate from our previous declared policies and considerations,” Ahmad Haghtalab, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security, was quoted as saying in the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Iran has claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than building weapons, although many experts have argued that the Iranian program is too advanced to be for purely civilian use. Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said in February that Iran continued to enrich uranium at rates up to 60 percent purity, which is far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge echoed by lawmakers in many allied nations. Leaders in Middle Eastern countries have also expressed concern about Tehran covertly trying to build nuclear weapons.

Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack against the Israeli homeland on Saturday as revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria last week that Iran has attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of the IRGC, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.

The Jewish state, with the help of allies including the US, Britain, France, and Jordan, repelled the massive Iranian drone and missile salvo, shooting down nearly every drone and missile. The attack caused only one injury.

However, escalating tensions between Iran and Israel risk spreading an already explosive situation in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

World leaders, especially in the US and Europe, have been urging Israel to show restraint in its response and to de-escalate tensions. Israeli officials have said the Jewish state must respond and will make its own decisions about how to defend itself. British Foreign Minister David Cameron, who was in Israel this week, said after his meetings it was “clear” that Israel decided to respond militarily to the Iranian attack.

Haghtalab’s comments appeared to be addressing concerns that Israel could target Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“If the Zionist regime wants to take action against our nuclear centers and facilities, we will surely and categorically reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites,” Haghtalab said.

The post Iran Could Review ‘Nuclear Doctrine’ Amid Possibility of Israeli Strike, Iranian Commander Warns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its unarmed aerial vehicle production after its missile and drone strike on Israel last weekend.

The US Treasury Department statement said the measures targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack.

Treasury said it was also designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products.

Also targeted, the statement said, were three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which it said had materially supported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization.

The statement said that concurrent with the Treasury action, Britain was imposing sanctions targeting several Iranian military organizations, individuals, and entities involved in Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile industries.

The US statement came after finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven (G7) industrial democracies said after a meeting in Wednesday that they would “ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran’s ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support destabilizing regional activities.”

European Union leaders also decided on Wednesday to step up sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s missile and drone attack on Israel left world powers scrambling to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East

Tehran says it launched the April 13 attack in retaliation for Israel‘s suspected April 1 strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Israel has said it will retaliate, while a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” following Israeli threats.

The post US Announces New Sanctions on Iran After Missile, Drone Strike on Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Google said on Thursday it had terminated 28 employees after some staff participated in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government.

The Alphabet unit said a small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted work at a few unspecified office locations.

“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” the company said in a statement.

Google said it had concluded individual investigations, resulting in the termination of 28 employees, and would continue to investigate and take action as needed.

In a statement on Medium, Google workers affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called it a “flagrant act of retaliation” and said that some employees who did not directly participate in Tuesday’s protests were also among those Google fired.

“Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor,” the statement added.

The protesting faction says that Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government.

In its statement, Google maintained that the Nimbus contract “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”

Protests at Google are not new. In 2018, workers successfully pushed the company to shelve a contract with the US military, Project Maven, meant to analyze aerial drone imagery with potential application in warfare.

The post Google Fires 28 Employees for Protesting Cloud Contract With Israel, Impeding Others’ Work first appeared on Algemeiner.com.