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Sydney Morning Herald
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
How the innocuous pager set in motion a potentially catastrophic war
Future historians might one day marvel at how a device as innocuous as a pager came to play such a significant role in the destabilisation of the Middle East, and the threat of a potentially catastrophic war radiating across the region. On September 17, Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, issued an electronic instruction to thousands of pagers it had fed into the hands of unwitting members of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that had embedded itself in Lebanon, posing a constant threat to Israel from its northern border. Two waves of explosions followed, as tiny and powerful charges in the devices detonated. Alongside the civilians killed and injured, the attack removed 1500 Hezbollah fighters from combat, many of them maimed or blinded, Reuters later reported, citing a Hezbollah source. But more significantly than that, its terrible success emboldened Israel. Israeli war planners had for years been concerned that an all-out confrontation with the powerful militia could provoke a devastating barrage of missiles. Hezbollah was known to have stockpiled thousands of the weapons, supplied by Iran. But with the militia in disarray, its communications obliterated, the threat was diminished. The scene for the current crisis was set. Days after what became known as Operation Grim Beeper, Israeli warplanes dropped bunker-buster bombs on what it described as Hezbollah's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut during a leadership meeting, killing 195 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Among them was Hassan Nasrallah, the Shiite cleric who had led the group since 1992. This signalled the grim dynamics of the region's geopolitics had shifted. For decades, Iran has advocated for the destruction of Israel, and for decades it propped up proxies to prosecute its conflict, channelling funds not only to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza. Israel and Iran fought by proxy in Yemen, where Iran supported the Houthis, and in the Syrian civil war, where Iran backed the Assad regime. But in recent years, Iran's network of proxies has been battered, leaving it temptingly vulnerable. Israel has largely annihilated Hamas in the vicious war in Gaza unleashed by the group's October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023. The Assad regime in Syria fell a year later. The Houthis have been diminished by an international bombing campaign against them, led by the US in response to that group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. All the while Israel has been building its ties with Arab states opposed to Iran's regional ambitions under the so-called Abraham Accords. The nuclear deal In July 2015, after two years of negotiations, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN security council, plus Germany and the EU, signed what was formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and informally as the Iran nuclear deal. Under the deal, Iran would agree to restrictions on its development of nuclear technologies and uranium enrichment program – and to international inspections of its nuclear facilities – in return for relief from crippling sanctions. Then-US president Barack Obama considered the deal to be a crowning achievement of his administration, but it was bitterly opposed Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the powerful Israel lobby in the US, which had become increasingly aligned with the US political right. 'It blocks every possible pathway Iran could use to build a nuclear bomb while ensuring – through a comprehensive, intrusive and unprecedented verification and transparency regime – that Iran's nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful moving forward,' the Obama White House said at the time. In his campaign against the deal, Netanyahu visited the US Capitol without a formal invitation from Obama, telling Congress that the deal would 'not prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, it would all but guarantee Iran gets nuclear weapons – lots of them'. The deal's opponents believed that it facilitated the Iranian pretence that its nuclear program was civilian in intent, and noted that its sunset clauses would allow Iran to resume various parts of its nuclear program within 10 to 16 years. Either way, when Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, he set about unravelling the Obama legacy. The Iran deal was one of his key targets. He dumped it 2018, describing it as a 'horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made'. It was at this point, says Amin Saikal, emeritus professor of Middle Eastern studies at the Australian National University, that the current crisis became inevitable. The deal contained a 'snap back' clause, nullifying the deal should one side break its terms. At the time, the UN's watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no evidence that Iran was in contravention of the deal. But with the US out, Iran again ramped up its nuclear program. Israel, having diminished Iran's proxies around the region, prepared for strikes on Iran, which had always been Netanyahu's key target. In October last year, Iran lobbed a volley of missiles into Israel, which responded with a wave of airstrikes later that month. More than 100 Israeli aircraft attacked, targeting military sites including missile production facilities, a drone factory, and most notably, destroying much of Iran's Russian-supplied air defence system. All Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases. Earlier this month, on June 11, the US pulled personnel out of the Middle East, which Trump said, 'could be a dangerous place'. The following day, the IAEA board declared Iran was in breach of its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. On June 13, the Israel Defence Forces issued a statement saying it had intelligence that Iran was nearing 'the point of no return' in its race towards a nuclear weapon. 'The regime is producing thousands of kilograms of enriched uranium, alongside decentralised and fortified enrichment compounds, in underground, fortified sites. This program has accelerated significantly in recent months, bringing the regime significantly closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon. 'The Iranian regime has been working for decades to obtain a nuclear weapon. The world has attempted every possible diplomatic path to stop it, but the regime has refused to stop. The State of Israel has been left with no choice.' First strikes Israel's first strikes hit Iran's top military leadership and nuclear facilities on June 12, with Iranian media confirming the attacks killed Iranian Armed Forces General Staff Chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Major General Hossein Salami, Khatam-al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Commander Gholam Ali Rashid, nuclear scientist and former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Fereydoon Abbasi, and physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a non-partisan US think tank. Since then, Israel has continued its attacks, targeting key personnel as well as dozens of military and nuclear sites. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks on Israel. Though hundreds of its missiles have been intercepted and destroyed, many have penetrated the nation's Iron Dome air defence system. Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, said the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel has said at least 24 Israeli civilians have died in Iranian missile attacks. Reuters could not independently verify the death toll from either side. A key site Israel has been unable to destroy is the Fordow uranium enrichment facility buried deep beneath a mountain 30 kilometres north of the city of Quom, and this brings us back to the role of the US. So heavily hardened is Fordow that Israel lacks the capacity to destroy it, and most analyses of the facility suggest that only the US has the technology to do so. Multiple strikes on the facility by US B2 bombers carrying so-called bunker-buster bombs – 13.6 tonne 'Massive Ordnance Penetrators' – would be required, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The madman theory To the extent that Donald Trump has a foreign policy doctrine, he might best be described as an adherent to the madman theory advanced by president Richard Nixon, who believed that if he fostered a reputation for being irrational and volatile, threats that might otherwise be viewed as untenable might carry more weight. Trump is leaning in to Nixon's lessons. When asked by The Wall Street Journal last year if he would use military force to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, Trump said he wouldn't have to because Chinese leader Xi Jinping 'respects me and he knows I'm f---ing crazy'. Trump's response to the current conflict has been, at best, unpredictable. In April, he recommenced negotiations with Iran, demanding it agree to end all uranium enrichment and destroy its stockpile of 400 kilograms of enriched uranium at a 60 per cent purity level. Iran refused, while Israel opposed the talks being held at all. According to Saikal of the ANU, the talks failed because the US kept raising the bar. In keeping with the isolationist views of his MAGA movement, Trump spent the early months of his second term seeking to restrain Netanyahu, reversing course after his abrupt departure from the G7 talks earlier this week. Discussing engaging in strikes on Iran, he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, 'I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do'. On social media that day, he declared, 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now … Our patience is wearing thin.' Three minutes later, he posted, 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!' On Thursday, Trump announced he would give himself two weeks to decide. 'That could be cover for a decision to strike, immediately,' James G. Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral and the former supreme US commander in Europe, said on CNN. 'Maybe this is a very clever ruse to lull the Iranians into a sense of complacency.' Loading Saikal believes Trump is likely to deploy a US bomber to hit Fordow, though he bases this on his years of analysis of the region rather than any specific information. He fears the implications. Even with its weakened network of proxies, Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of the world's oil and gas supply travels. He notes that even in its weakened state, Iran maintains close ties with China and Russia. And while Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains an unpopular autocrat, leading a nation weakened by years of sanctions, the antibody response of an outside attack could firm his base, Saikal believes. So far, analysts have been surprised by how quickly Israel was able to dominate Iranian skies, suggesting that not only did earlier strikes weaken Iran's defence, but that the regime has been white-anted by corruption and patronage. As sanctions crippled civilian life in Iran over recent years, members of the Revolutionary Guard (which was founded after the revolution to defend the Islamic Republic from internal and external threats) profited from blackmarket oil sales and the development of monopolies over consumer goods, says Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert. The Australian specialist in Middle Eastern political science, now at Macquarie University, was imprisoned by the regime in an act of hostage diplomacy in 2018. 'I was arrested by the intelligence branch of the IRGC, and I spent a lot of time, unfortunately, talking to them and getting to know them over several years. And clearly, many of them are incompetent. They're in their roles because of ideological affinity, and who their family members are, not because of competence or expertise.' It may well be that the US hopes to eradicate Iran's nuclear program while allowing the regime to survive, but Netanyahu appears to determined to see it fall. Asked on Friday morning if he considered Khamenei a 'dead man', Netanyahu ducked the question. Loading 'Every option remains open, though I would rather not discuss such matters publicly and allow our actions to communicate our intentions,' he said. Moore-Gilbert believes the Revolutionary Guard, rather than some unnamed progressive movement, is the likely successor should the regime be toppled. No alternative exists. Should that happen, Israel might not like what emerges. 'It is a hardline fundamentalist Islamist organisation with a kind of worldview that believes in exporting the ideology of the Iranian Revolution, particularly to other parts of the Shia Islamic world, but more broadly as well. 'It's virulently antisemitic and anti-American, anti-Western. It is conspiratorial and paranoid.' Saikal believes that whatever form of Iranian leadership emerges from the current crisis will be even more determined to secure nuclear weapons. It will, after all, have seen what happens without them.
The Age
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Age
How the innocuous pager set in motion a potentially catastrophic war
Future historians might one day marvel at how a device as innocuous as a pager came to play such a significant role in the destabilisation of the Middle East, and the threat of a potentially catastrophic war radiating across the region. On September 17, Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, issued an electronic instruction to thousands of pagers it had fed into the hands of unwitting members of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that had embedded itself in Lebanon, posing a constant threat to Israel from its northern border. Two waves of explosions followed, as tiny and powerful charges in the devices detonated. Alongside the civilians killed and injured, the attack removed 1500 Hezbollah fighters from combat, many of them maimed or blinded, Reuters later reported, citing a Hezbollah source. But more significantly than that, its terrible success emboldened Israel. Israeli war planners had for years been concerned that an all-out confrontation with the powerful militia could provoke a devastating barrage of missiles. Hezbollah was known to have stockpiled thousands of the weapons, supplied by Iran. But with the militia in disarray, its communications obliterated, the threat was diminished. The scene for the current crisis was set. Days after what became known as Operation Grim Beeper, Israeli warplanes dropped bunker-buster bombs on what it described as Hezbollah's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut during a leadership meeting, killing 195 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Among them was Hassan Nasrallah, the Shiite cleric who had led the group since 1992. This signalled the grim dynamics of the region's geopolitics had shifted. For decades, Iran has advocated for the destruction of Israel, and for decades it propped up proxies to prosecute its conflict, channelling funds not only to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza. Israel and Iran fought by proxy in Yemen, where Iran supported the Houthis, and in the Syrian civil war, where Iran backed the Assad regime. But in recent years, Iran's network of proxies has been battered, leaving it temptingly vulnerable. Israel has largely annihilated Hamas in the vicious war in Gaza unleashed by the group's October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023. The Assad regime in Syria fell a year later. The Houthis have been diminished by an international bombing campaign against them, led by the US in response to that group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. All the while Israel has been building its ties with Arab states opposed to Iran's regional ambitions under the so-called Abraham Accords. The nuclear deal In July 2015, after two years of negotiations, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN security council, plus Germany and the EU, signed what was formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and informally as the Iran nuclear deal. Under the deal, Iran would agree to restrictions on its development of nuclear technologies and uranium enrichment program – and to international inspections of its nuclear facilities – in return for relief from crippling sanctions. Then-US president Barack Obama considered the deal to be a crowning achievement of his administration, but it was bitterly opposed Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the powerful Israel lobby in the US, which had become increasingly aligned with the US political right. 'It blocks every possible pathway Iran could use to build a nuclear bomb while ensuring – through a comprehensive, intrusive and unprecedented verification and transparency regime – that Iran's nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful moving forward,' the Obama White House said at the time. In his campaign against the deal, Netanyahu visited the US Capitol without a formal invitation from Obama, telling Congress that the deal would 'not prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, it would all but guarantee Iran gets nuclear weapons – lots of them'. The deal's opponents believed that it facilitated the Iranian pretence that its nuclear program was civilian in intent, and noted that its sunset clauses would allow Iran to resume various parts of its nuclear program within 10 to 16 years. Either way, when Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, he set about unravelling the Obama legacy. The Iran deal was one of his key targets. He dumped it 2018, describing it as a 'horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made'. It was at this point, says Amin Saikal, emeritus professor of Middle Eastern studies at the Australian National University, that the current crisis became inevitable. The deal contained a 'snap back' clause, nullifying the deal should one side break its terms. At the time, the UN's watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no evidence that Iran was in contravention of the deal. But with the US out, Iran again ramped up its nuclear program. Israel, having diminished Iran's proxies around the region, prepared for strikes on Iran, which had always been Netanyahu's key target. In October last year, Iran lobbed a volley of missiles into Israel, which responded with a wave of airstrikes later that month. More than 100 Israeli aircraft attacked, targeting military sites including missile production facilities, a drone factory, and most notably, destroying much of Iran's Russian-supplied air defence system. All Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases. Earlier this month, on June 11, the US pulled personnel out of the Middle East, which Trump said, 'could be a dangerous place'. The following day, the IAEA board declared Iran was in breach of its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. On June 13, the Israel Defence Forces issued a statement saying it had intelligence that Iran was nearing 'the point of no return' in its race towards a nuclear weapon. 'The regime is producing thousands of kilograms of enriched uranium, alongside decentralised and fortified enrichment compounds, in underground, fortified sites. This program has accelerated significantly in recent months, bringing the regime significantly closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon. 'The Iranian regime has been working for decades to obtain a nuclear weapon. The world has attempted every possible diplomatic path to stop it, but the regime has refused to stop. The State of Israel has been left with no choice.' First strikes Israel's first strikes hit Iran's top military leadership and nuclear facilities on June 12, with Iranian media confirming the attacks killed Iranian Armed Forces General Staff Chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Major General Hossein Salami, Khatam-al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Commander Gholam Ali Rashid, nuclear scientist and former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Fereydoon Abbasi, and physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a non-partisan US think tank. Since then, Israel has continued its attacks, targeting key personnel as well as dozens of military and nuclear sites. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks on Israel. Though hundreds of its missiles have been intercepted and destroyed, many have penetrated the nation's Iron Dome air defence system. Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, said the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel has said at least 24 Israeli civilians have died in Iranian missile attacks. Reuters could not independently verify the death toll from either side. A key site Israel has been unable to destroy is the Fordow uranium enrichment facility buried deep beneath a mountain 30 kilometres north of the city of Quom, and this brings us back to the role of the US. So heavily hardened is Fordow that Israel lacks the capacity to destroy it, and most analyses of the facility suggest that only the US has the technology to do so. Multiple strikes on the facility by US B2 bombers carrying so-called bunker-buster bombs – 13.6 tonne 'Massive Ordnance Penetrators' – would be required, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The madman theory To the extent that Donald Trump has a foreign policy doctrine, he might best be described as an adherent to the madman theory advanced by president Richard Nixon, who believed that if he fostered a reputation for being irrational and volatile, threats that might otherwise be viewed as untenable might carry more weight. Trump is leaning in to Nixon's lessons. When asked by The Wall Street Journal last year if he would use military force to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, Trump said he wouldn't have to because Chinese leader Xi Jinping 'respects me and he knows I'm f---ing crazy'. Trump's response to the current conflict has been, at best, unpredictable. In April, he recommenced negotiations with Iran, demanding it agree to end all uranium enrichment and destroy its stockpile of 400 kilograms of enriched uranium at a 60 per cent purity level. Iran refused, while Israel opposed the talks being held at all. According to Saikal of the ANU, the talks failed because the US kept raising the bar. In keeping with the isolationist views of his MAGA movement, Trump spent the early months of his second term seeking to restrain Netanyahu, reversing course after his abrupt departure from the G7 talks earlier this week. Discussing engaging in strikes on Iran, he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, 'I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do'. On social media that day, he declared, 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now … Our patience is wearing thin.' Three minutes later, he posted, 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!' On Thursday, Trump announced he would give himself two weeks to decide. 'That could be cover for a decision to strike, immediately,' James G. Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral and the former supreme US commander in Europe, said on CNN. 'Maybe this is a very clever ruse to lull the Iranians into a sense of complacency.' Loading Saikal believes Trump is likely to deploy a US bomber to hit Fordow, though he bases this on his years of analysis of the region rather than any specific information. He fears the implications. Even with its weakened network of proxies, Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of the world's oil and gas supply travels. He notes that even in its weakened state, Iran maintains close ties with China and Russia. And while Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains an unpopular autocrat, leading a nation weakened by years of sanctions, the antibody response of an outside attack could firm his base, Saikal believes. So far, analysts have been surprised by how quickly Israel was able to dominate Iranian skies, suggesting that not only did earlier strikes weaken Iran's defence, but that the regime has been white-anted by corruption and patronage. As sanctions crippled civilian life in Iran over recent years, members of the Revolutionary Guard (which was founded after the revolution to defend the Islamic Republic from internal and external threats) profited from blackmarket oil sales and the development of monopolies over consumer goods, says Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert. The Australian specialist in Middle Eastern political science, now at Macquarie University, was imprisoned by the regime in an act of hostage diplomacy in 2018. 'I was arrested by the intelligence branch of the IRGC, and I spent a lot of time, unfortunately, talking to them and getting to know them over several years. And clearly, many of them are incompetent. They're in their roles because of ideological affinity, and who their family members are, not because of competence or expertise.' It may well be that the US hopes to eradicate Iran's nuclear program while allowing the regime to survive, but Netanyahu appears to determined to see it fall. Asked on Friday morning if he considered Khamenei a 'dead man', Netanyahu ducked the question. Loading 'Every option remains open, though I would rather not discuss such matters publicly and allow our actions to communicate our intentions,' he said. Moore-Gilbert believes the Revolutionary Guard, rather than some unnamed progressive movement, is the likely successor should the regime be toppled. No alternative exists. Should that happen, Israel might not like what emerges. 'It is a hardline fundamentalist Islamist organisation with a kind of worldview that believes in exporting the ideology of the Iranian Revolution, particularly to other parts of the Shia Islamic world, but more broadly as well. 'It's virulently antisemitic and anti-American, anti-Western. It is conspiratorial and paranoid.' Saikal believes that whatever form of Iranian leadership emerges from the current crisis will be even more determined to secure nuclear weapons. It will, after all, have seen what happens without them.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
When Trump was 'disturbed' by Netanyahu's gift: It was a pager that Israel sold to Hezbollah
Trump was disturbed by Netanyahu's gift of a gold-plated pager that he gave when he visited the White House in February. In September 2024, thousands of handheld pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah operatives exploded simultaneously in two separate events across Lebanon and Syria. It was an Israeli attack nicknamed Operation Grim Beeper. Israel had secretly packed pagers with explosives and sold them to Hezbollah operatives. Months later, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House for his first visit of the second Trump term in February, he gifted a gold-plated pager to Trump and a silver-plated one to Vice President JD Vance. Donald Trump told an ally that the gift was disturbing after what happened in Lebanon and Syria -- as reported by the NYT. During the meeting, Netanyahu gave Trump a presentation about Iran and showed images of the country's various nuclear sites. But Trump at that time was not convinced and was thinking whether to contain Netanyahu. From that 'disturbing' gift, the US's Israel policy underwent a major shift in the past few months with Donald Trump now weighing on whether the US should join Israel's strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The president met with his national security team on Tuesday to discuss next steps. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Your Finger Shape Says a Lot About Your Personality, Read Now Tips and Tricks Undo In a social media post Tuesday, Trump threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei and said that US knew where he was. "He is an easy target, but is safe there," Trump wrote. "We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin." Khamenei returned the threat and said any form of US military intervention will "undoubtedly be met with irreparable harm". "Wise people who know Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because Iranians are not those who surrender," he added. Trump was getting impatient with Iran over slow pace of negotiations Apart from Israel's pressure, Trump was also getting impatient with Iran over the slow pace of negotiations and started to conclude that the talks were going nowhere. NYT reported that Trump vacillated for months over how to contain Netanyahu as he told an ally that Netanyahu was trying to drag him into another Middle East war that he promised in his election campaign that he would keep America out of. But he also came to believe that Iranians were playing him in the diplomatic negotiations.
The Print
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Just protecting borders from drone attacks isn't enough. Look at Ukraine & Russia
Military analysts are also comparing it to the Israeli pager attack, a covert operation executed by Israeli intelligence services, against Hezbollah in September 2024. This operation, dubbed 'Operation Grim Beeper', involved the strategic detonation of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon and Syria. A common factor in both these attacks is their sheer unconventionality, adding yet another dimension to the concept of asymmetric, kinetic, non-contact warfare. On 1 June 2025, Ukraine launched a coordinated drone strike targeting five major Russian airbases using drones that were smuggled into Russia in shipping containers disguised as construction material. Utilising 117 drones, the Ukrainian forces executed a surprise attack deep within Russian territory, the deepest being over 4,000 km from Ukraine, which is more than the length or breadth of India. The operation resulted in the destruction of several aircrafts, including strategic bombers such as the Tu-22 and Tu-95, which are vital to Russia's long-range and nuclear capabilities. Operation Spider's Web, Ukraine's recent drone attacks on Russian airfields, has significantly disrupted Russia's military capabilities and sent a strong message not only regarding Ukraine's evolving warfare strategies but also to armies worldwide on the growing drone threat. It is abundantly evident that India needs to be quick on the draw if it is to forestall similar attacks within our own territory. Our Integrated Air Defence System (IADS) worked well to neutralise Pakistani drone attacks during Operation Sindoor, but these defensive measures were focused on the areas bordering Pakistan. We are surrounded by inimical countries or countries that harbour terror groups. Given these realities, our vital installations are no more than a few hundred km from any border, making the institution of 360-degree preventive and precautionary measures all the more urgent. Also read: Threats to India are not over. Why it must build fortress-like defences Countering drone attacks against targets in the hinterland, such as airfields, will involve a combination of technology, tactics, and infrastructural flexibility. Some of the measures that need to be initiated are: Integrated sensor networks: Deploying a combination of radar, radio frequency (RF) detectors, and optical sensors to create a comprehensive surveillance system. An upgraded IADS network is needed to detect, track, and classify drones at various ranges, providing multi-directional early warning and situational awareness over the entire Indian airspace. Geofencing: Implementing virtual boundaries around critical areas that trigger alerts when unauthorised drones enter restricted zones. Enhanced geofencing using 3D modeling to adapt to terrain and operational needs will offer a dynamic defence perimeter, without curtailing own operational freedom. Radio frequency Jamming: Utilising directional RF jammers to disrupt communications between a drone and its operator, causing the drone to return to its launch point or land. However, this method is effective only against drones relying on RF links, and not on pre-programmed ones. Microwave and DEW: High-Power Microwave (HPM) systems that emit concentrated microwave pulses to disable drone electronics are particularly effective against drone swarms due to their ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously. Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapons (RFDEWs) systems, on the other hand, emit targeted RF energy to disrupt or damage the electronic components of drones, offering a cost-effective and scalable solution for the defence of military bases and other large, vulnerable areas. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which is already working on such projects, should fast-track the development of these systems. Anti-Drone mesh or Cope cages: Installing metal lattice structures around aircraft and critical infrastructure/assets can physically prevent drones from making direct contact, reducing the risk of damage from explosive or kinetic impacts. However, the protective value of such cages is limited, especially when sensitive equipment is involved. A better alternative would be to have hardened shelters or, better still, move everything underground. Using low-tech alternatives like smokescreens to obscure the view for first-person view (FPV) drones is also possible. Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs): Designating specialised trained units like the Air Force's 'Garuds' or the National Security Guard (NSG) to respond to drone threats would enable swift action to neutralise or mitigate attacks. Each military installation will have to institute a system of 'look-outs' who can sound the alarm the moment an unidentified flying object is spotted. Training and preparedness: Regular drills and training programmes for personnel to enhance readiness and ensure an effective response to drone incursions. This includes familiarisation with detection systems, engagement protocols, and coordination procedures. The support of the local population, who can act as 'spotters' and civil-military cooperation, will be vital. Implementing a combination of these measures can significantly enhance the defensibility of airfields and critical infrastructure against drone threats, even in the depth areas far from the frontlines. Equally important, though, are some of the measures that have to be taken in the civilian domain, by the government. What these drone attacks have magnified is that there is no classical front line and that the entire country is the battlefield. That being so, many rules and regulations that have been ignored for want of legislation or political expediency need to be looked at. The declaration of 'no-fly zones' in the vicinity of vulnerable areas needs to be notified and made a punishable offence, inviting severe penalties under the National Security Act, and not treated merely as a minor civil offence. The restrictions on construction near the periphery of military installations need to be strictly followed. As things stand now, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) guidelines under the Works of Defence Act 1903 are being blatantly violated. Even when violations are observed and reported, they are dismissed by local authorities, including the courts and police, in sympathy with the local population. In one instance, the Karnataka High Court even issued orders to ignore the MoD guidelines in a case about construction activities. This short-sighted approach to matters of national security can have far-reaching, catastrophic consequences. Civil multi-story buildings hugging the boundary walls from where attacks on specific targets and personnel can be launched and controlled by FPV drones present a very real and potent danger. Due attention also needs to be paid to the multitude of drone and anti-drone companies that have proliferated in the last few years. It must be made mandatory for all such companies to register themselves and provide details of their manufacturing or assembly capacities, with a record of sales and verified end-users. An underground market for drones cannot be allowed to flourish. All drones need to be registered at the nearest police station, including their technical parameters. Unauthorised possession or sale of drones needs to be made an offence through suitable legislation, on the lines of the Arms Act. All agencies need to work seamlessly to deal with this emerging threat. Ukraine's drone attack on Russian airfields has been described as Russia's Pearl Harbour moment. The US suffered significant losses after Japan's surprise attack on its Pacific fleet, as has Russia now. However, let us not forget that the US survived and, through the wrecks of sunken ships, rose and won the war. What the future portends is unclear, but we need to prepare for all eventualities. Forewarned is forearmed. General Manoj Mukund Naravane PVSM AVSM SM VSM is a retired Indian Army General who served as the 28th Chief of the Army Staff. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Jewish protester is charged over briefly holding up placard mocking TERRORIST leader
A Jewish protester has revealed he was arrested and charged for holding up a placard which mocked a terrorist leader. The man, who spoke to The Telegraph anonymously, said he was detained last September over the cartoon showing the former secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah with a pager and the words 'beep, beep, beep'. He held the sign up during a counter-demonstration against a pro-Palestinian march. It was in reference to an attack by Israel in Lebanon, known as Operation Grim Beeper, in which pagers and walkie-talkies with explosives hidden inside. The attack killed 42 people, including Hezbollah terrorists and 12 civilians, and injured a futher 4,000 civilians. Nasrallah survived Operation Grim Beeper but was murdered in an air strike just a week later. Police repeatedly questioned the British man if he thought the cartoon would offend 'clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel' protesters. On Friday, the Met Police told The Telegraph the officer 'clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Palestinian'. A Met Police spokesperson said: 'A man was charged following a careful consideration of the evidence. We will reflect on the CPS decision not to proceed with the case, applying any learning to future investigations. 'The officer who interviewed the man clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Palestinian. 'We take support for proscribed organisations very seriously. Since October 2023, we have made 28 arrests under the Terrorism Act for offences at protests including wearing clothing or displaying symbols that indicated support for such groups, including Hezbollah. This is in addition to the hundreds of arrests made for other offences.' It comes after pro-Palestinians marching through Piccadilly Circus last week clashed with a smaller counter-protest, organised by the group Stop The Hate. Separated by barriers, the two groups hurled insults such as 'scum' at each other and were seen making rude gestures. Palestine supporting protesters paraded banners reading 'stop arming Israel' while chanting 'from the River to the Sea', as pro-Israelis screamed 'terrorist supporters off our streets'. Some verbal clashes boiled over into pushing and shoving, with the police forced to intervene. Hundreds of Metropolitan Police officers were present in central London after the force imposed conditions under the Public Order Act denying participants in both protests from assembling before 12pm or veering away from the pre-planned route. Meanwhile, police were told to 'spend their time catching actual criminals' earlier this month after a retired constable was handcuffed by his former force over a social media post warning about the threat of anti-Semitism in Britain. Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham, was detained at his home by six officers from Kent Police - the very same force he had given ten years of his life to - after he questioned a supporter of pro-Palestine demonstrations on X. In the context of a rise in protests at the start of the Israel-Hamas war - and reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming a Russian airport - Mr Foulkes tweeted an activist: 'One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…' 'Shocked' and 'flabbergasted', Mr Foulkes was later handcuffed on his own doorstep by uniformed officers equipped with batons and pepper spray. Kent Police has since apologised for the 'distress' caused to one of their former colleagues. Condemning the arrest of Mr Foulkes, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said last night: 'Arresting a 71 year old man and holding him for hours in a police cell over a tweet that was obviously not criminal is completely unacceptable. 'The Police should spend their time catching actual criminals, not policing offence on Twitter.' Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told police to 'spend their time catching actual criminals', while columnist Allison Pearson, who was quizzed by police over a social media post herself, described it as 'Stasi Britain' Meanwhile, there were also two incidents last November where writers were questioned by police over their social media posts. One of those was Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, who was investigated over a tweet she had posted, and then quickly deleted, a year prior in November 2023. Ms Pearson revealed officers from Essex Police knocked on her door on Remembrance Day last November to inform her that she was at the centre of a probe over allegedly stirring up racial hatred on social media. However, they could not give her any details about what post was being investigated or who complained. Essex Police dropped its investigation after the force was advised by Crown Prosecution Service lawyers that it's case failed to meet the evidential test. 'I was obviously shocked and devastated in the first place to have had the police on my doorstep on Remembrance Sunday, of all days, telling me I had put something up on social media which they said was stirring up racial hatred,' she told the Mail at the time. Ms Pearson has also reacted to the arrest of Mr Foulkes, posting: 'Police are out of control. In Stasi Britain, Julian Foulkes, a retired police officer, was handcuffed, home searched, because he tweeted his concern about anti-Semitism.
