Iran can strike US cities from the sea, claims all of Europe already within range, Iranian MP says
An Iranian lawmaker on the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday that Tehran can target US cities from offshore positions and that every European country is already within range of Iranian missiles, remarks made as Britain, France and Germany signal they are ready to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran.
Amir Hayat-Moqaddam told the Iranian outlet Didban Iran that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force has worked 'for 20 years' to enable strikes 'using Iranian warships and vessels,' adding, 'We can move our ships to within 2,000 kilometers of the US and from there target Washington, New York and other cities.' He also asserted, 'Right now, all European countries are within our range.'
The comments were amplified across Persian-language media on Sunday, with Iran International summarizing Hayat-Moqaddam's interview and noting the timing amid European moves toward the UN 'snapback' mechanism.
The E3 — the UK, France and Germany — have formally warned they are prepared to trigger snapback unless Iran returns to nuclear talks by the end of August, which would restore UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 deal. Reuters, the Financial Times and AP reported the warning last week.
Iran has fielded a growing arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles. Its long-range land-attack cruise missiles, such as the Hoveyzeh, are reported at about 1,350 km, while the naval 'Abu Mahdi' cruise missile has been cited around 1,000 km and inducted into service with Iran's navy and IRGC Navy. Those ranges would not reach the US mainland from 2,000 km offshore without additional standoff or forward basing.
Iran has demonstrated it can dispatch warships into the Atlantic — the Makran and Sahand did so in 2021 — but such blue-water missions are rare and challenging for Tehran's aging fleet. The Sahand itself later sank in Bandar Abbas in 2024 after capsizing in port.
Recent combat record and escalation context
Iran's missile and drone forces have shown significant reach and mass. In April 2024, Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles directly at Israel for the first time, most of which were intercepted by Israel and partners. The episode underscored Iran's capacity for large salvos, while also revealing air-defense challenges and coalition countermeasures.
US and allied forces have also tracked and countered Iranian maritime activity beyond the Gulf. Earlier this year, US officials acknowledged a cyber operation against an Iranian intelligence-gathering ship in the Red Sea region, part of wider friction at sea.
Hayat-Moqaddam's threat appears calibrated for deterrence and domestic messaging as UN snapback looms. Iran's known cruise-missile ranges and limited blue-water basing suggest practical obstacles to striking the US homeland from 2,000 km at sea, although Tehran is steadily extending its naval missile envelope and has proven it can reach deep into the region with massed salvos. Open evidence does not confirm a ship-launched capability that would enable the specific scenario he described.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
41 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Education Department quietly removes rules for teaching English learners
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Since March, the Education Department has also laid off nearly all workers in its Office of English Language Acquisition and has asked Congress to terminate funding for the federal program that helps pay for educating English-language learners. Last week, education advocates noticed that the guidance document related to English learning had a new label indicating it was rescinded and remains online 'for historical purposes only.' Advertisement On Tuesday, Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said that the guidance for teaching English learners, which was originally set forth in 2015, was rescinded because it 'is not in line with administration policy.' Advertisement A Justice Department spokesperson responded to questions by sending a link to the July memorandum and said he had no comment when asked whether the guidance would be replaced. For decades, the federal government has held that failing to provide resources for people not proficient in English constitutes discrimination based on national origin under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In rescinding the guidance, the Trump administration is signaling that it may stop enforcing the law under that long-standing interpretation. The Education and Justice departments have been responsible for enforcing the law. In the July memorandum, Attorney General Pam Bondi cited case law that says treating people, including students, who aren't proficient in English differently does not, on its face, amount to discrimination based on national origin. Other guidance related to language access for people using services across the federal government is also being suspended, according to the memo, and the Justice Department will create new guidance by mid-January to 'help agencies prioritize English while explaining precisely when and how multilingual assistance remains necessary.' The aim of the effort, Bondi said in a statement published alongside the memo, is to 'promote assimilation over division.' The consequences for school districts were not immediately clear, but advocates worry that rescinding the 2015 guidance could open the door for weaker instruction for English learners and upend decades of direction from the federal government to provide English-language services to students who need them. 'The Department of Education and the Department of Justice are walking away from 55 years of legal understanding and enforcement. I don't think we can understate how important that is,' said Michael Pillera, an attorney who worked at the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights for 10 years and now directs the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Advertisement Without pressure from the federal government to comply with the law, it is possible that some school districts will drop services, Pillera said, particularly as many districts struggle with financial pressures. 'It's going to ripple quickly,' he predicted. 'Schools were doing this because the Office for Civil Rights told them they had to.' Many districts will probably not change their services, but rescinding the guidance opens the door, said Leslie Villegas, an education policy analyst at New America, a think tank. Advocates may watch for changes in districts that previously had compliance problems or those that had open cases with the Office for Civil Rights related to English-language instruction, she noted. 'The rescission of this guidance may create the mentality that no one's watching,' Villegas said. In recent months, the Justice Department notified at least three school districts — in Boston; Newark; and Worcester, Massachusetts — that the government was releasing them from government monitoring that had been in place to ensure they offered services to English-language learners. 'Unfortunately, we're not at all surprised,' Anna Krieger, executive director of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, said of the Trump administration's latest move. 'It's a really devastating decision.'' In anticipation of such a shift, Krieger said in a phone interview Wednesday evening, state lawmakers recently took action to ensure ongoing protections for Massachusetts students who are learning English and those with disabilities. 'They will still have the same rights next year that they had in the last school year,' she said. Advertisement Supporters of immigration restrictions argued that relieving pressure on schools to provide these services might be helpful, especially given the costs to districts. 'If you devote all these resources to these kids coming in [to school] completely unprepared, inevitably it will diminish the quality of education others are getting,' said Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Todd DuBois, communications director for U.S. English, a group that advocates for English as the official and common language, said some education is needed to help 'bridge the gap' for students who do not speak English, but the group is concerned that multilingualism 'gets in the way of teaching English literacy earlier in life.' Tonya Alanez of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Associated Press
42 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Islamic State extremists exploit instability in Africa and Syria, UN experts say
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Islamic State extremists are exploiting instability in Africa and Syria and remain a significant threat in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe, U.N. counterterrorism experts said Wednesday. The militant group is now using advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, and social media, which poses a new challenge, the experts told a U.N. Security Council meeting. The Islamic State group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that left tens of thousands of people dead and cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries and it has affiliates and supporters in many other countries. The U.N. has seen a resurgence of activity by the Islamic State in the Sahel — in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — and in West Africa the group has emerged 'as a prolific producer of terrorist propaganda and attracted foreign terrorist fighters, primarily from within the region,' said Vladimir Voronkov, who heads the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism. He said arrests in Libya have revealed logistics and financing networks with connections to IS in the Sahel. In Somalia, Voronkov said, a large-scale IS attack was countered by Somali security forces and some 200 IS fighters were killed and over 150 arrested. But he said despite the losses IS still benefits from regional support networks and remains a threat. In northcentral Africa's Lake Chad Basin region, the Islamic State is 'increasingly receiving foreign material and human support to conduct its operations, including money, drones and expertise on improvised explosive devices,' said Natalia Gherman, who heads the executive directorate of the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Committee. 'Its ability to adapt and exploit instability continues to pose significant challenges, particularly in parts of Africa,' she said. 'The continent bears over half the world's fatalities from terrorist attacks.' In the Middle East, Voronkov said IS is active in Iraq and Syria, where it is trying to restore its operations in the northwest Badia desert region and renew effort to destabilize local authorities. He said the militants are exploiting security gaps, conducting covert operations and inciting sectarian tensions in Syria. In Afghanistan, the Islamic State group's Khorasan affiliate 'continues to represent one of the most serious threats to Central Asia and beyond,' Voronkov said, citing its targeting of civilians, minority groups and foreign nationals. Gherman added that IS-Khorasan is using 'propaganda tactics and online campaigns' to try to recruit and fundraise in Central Asia and Europe. She called for innovative responses to the Islamic State group's use of artificial intelligence and social media for recruitment, fundraising and propaganda. 'Although AI is being harnessed to amplify the group's reach and impact, it also holds significant potential for states to enhance the detection, prevention and disruption of terrorist activities,' Gherman said. Elisa De Anda Madrazo, president of the Financial Action Task Force, which researches how terrorism is financed, said a major change is that 'Digital platforms such as social media, messaging apps and crowdfunding systems are increasingly being abused for terrorist financing.'
43 minutes ago
NATO defense chiefs wrap talks on Ukraine security, but the path forward is unclear
Top U.S. and European defense officials spent much of this week privately discussing possible military options in Ukraine that would bolster the Eastern European country's protections against Russia. But the alliance's top military officials appeared to emerge without a concrete plan -- at least not one they were willing to discuss publicly. Gen. Dan Caine, President Donald Trump's top military adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, invited several of his European counterparts to dinner at his home at Fort Myer in Virginia on Tuesday evening. The discussion continued Wednesday online with a briefing by Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. commander in Europe, who also serves as head of NATO forces, officials said. The talks were aimed at providing military options that Trump and other political leaders in the NATO alliance could use to guarantee Ukraine's security as part of a peace deal between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy has aggressively sought security guarantees from the alliance to ensure Russia would not attack again. United Kingdom officials have said previously that Great Britain and France are prepared to lead a multinational force in Ukraine, but it was not clear how many troops would be involved, from which countries, or what exactly the troops would do. On Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed the possibility of NATO-backed security guarantees as a 'breakthrough,' noting that the U.S. was now working 'at pace' with 30 or so other countries, which he called a 'coalition of the willing,' to help Ukraine. 'These guarantees will ensure that if there is a peace, if there is a deal, then we hold to it and there isn't further conflict,' Starmer said in a video post on X. Likewise, Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, said the security guarantees will ultimately help achieve any ceasefire in the three-year war. "If you bring in good security guarantees, this allows Zelenskyy some options as well to work with Putin so he can settle this conflict, and I think w'ere on a path to do that," Kellogg told Fox Business on Tuesday. But along with any commitment of troops, details on these possible security guarantees remained elusive Wednesday, as several officials said the discussions were still in the early stages and would need to become part of a broader political discussion going forward. Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told ABC News Live on Wednesday it was unlikely that NATO would cobble together a security agreement that would be acceptable to both Ukraine and the Europeans and to Russia. 'What you may get is a ceasefire, perhaps even an armistice, a more formal ceasefire that would require NATO security or European security guarantees to Ukraine to ensure that Russia does not restart the war,' Daalder continued. NATO officials struck an optimistic tone Wednesday following meetings with their counterparts, while avoiding discussing specifics. 'NATO has faced important times before,' said Col. Martin L. O'Donnell, a spokesperson for Grynkewich and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, in a statement following the meetings. 'And these have only made our Alliance Stronger,' he added. Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO military committee, said members confirmed their support for Ukraine during the meeting Wednesday. The 'priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace,' he wrote. For his part, Trump has said only that he won't send ground troops and suggested the U.S. could help with air assets. 'President Trump has been clear that the U.S. will not be sending boots on the ground, but may be willing to help in other ways,' a White House official told reporters on Wednesday.
