🇮🇷⚔️🇮🇱🇺🇸 Nearly one month into the 3rd Gulf War and Iran hasn't used its most sophisticated missiles and the eastern missile bases

Iran’s defence ministry unveiled its newest missile, the Qassem Basir, in May last year, with the fiery claim that it would allow Iran to strike enemies “wherever they are and whenever necessary”.

With a manoeuvrable 500kg warhead, fitted with an optically guided “terminal seeker” which cannot be electronically jammed, it is one of the most advanced missiles in Iran’s arsenal.

Yet nearly a month into Iran’s war with Israel and the US in the Gulf, it has not seen combat.

Analysts say it is among a handful of very advanced missiles that have largely sat out the war this far because Iran is waiting for the right opportunity to use them.

Tehran’s strike last week on the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar has underlined the risks for many Gulf states. The attack used several missiles equipped with manoeuvrable warheads, according to a person briefed on the attack.

“Tehran may be holding some of its most capable systems in reserve, though inventories of these newer missiles are likely limited,” said Jim Lamson, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a former CIA analyst.

Lamson said the advanced missiles that have yet to see action include the Qassem Basir, the Etemad — another manoeuvrable missile based on the older Emad missile — and the Fattah-2, based on the earlier Fattah-1. According to Iranian claims, the Fattah-2 boasts a hypersonic glide vehicle, which would be very difficult to intercept.

The Raad-500, a manoeuvrable short-range missile, has so far not been used in the Gulf, Lamson said, based on publicly available data.

🔗 https://archive.ph/O1pPh

🇺🇸❌🇨🇭 The US is bypassing Switzerland’s Patriot payment freeze by redirecting F-35 funds through a shared military sales fund, making the move effectively “useless.”

Over “a low three-digit million” CHF (100M+) has already been shifted, forcing Switzerland to cover new gaps in its F-35 budget.

Swiss officials say the situation is “very unsatisfactory” and warn it is “damaging trust” in US arms agreements.

So, when Switzerland stopped paying for Patriot, the U.S. just took money from another Swiss project (F-35) instead.

Switzerland said: “We won’t pay.”

The U.S. said: “We’ll take the money anyway, from another account.”

🔗 https://clashreport.com/defense/articles/patriot-crisis-us-seizes-switzerlands-fighter-jet-funds-07crgkch8ihr

🛢📉 France says that oil output will not return to pre-3rd Gulf War levels before 2030

France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure revealed on Wednesday that between 30 and 40 per cent of Gulf refining capacity has been damaged or destroyed by Iran's retaliatory strikes, leaving a shortage of 11 million barrels a day on global oil markets.

Lescure warned it could take up to three years to restore damaged facilities, and several months to restart those that were urgently shut down.

With fossil fuel supplies under severe strain, both the UK and Germany signalled on Wednesday that the energy crisis is accelerating their green transitions.

This comes as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde assured the continent that the ECB has several options for dealing with the inflation shock triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and vowed that policymakers would not be "paralysed by hesitation".

🔗 https://www.france24.com/en/france-confirms-oil-crisis-says-30-40-gulf-energy-infrastructure-destroyed

🇱🇧⚔️🇮🇱 Israeli Army Takes Heaviest Tank Losses in Over 40 Years as Hezbollah Ambushes Destroy 21 Merkavas in One Day

The Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has reported on the results of multiple ambushes launched against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, with 21 Israeli Merkava main battle tanks reported on March 26 to have been destroyed within a 24 hour period. Other consequences of engagements have included the firing of over 60 rockets at targets in the Galilee region that day, complementing much longer range strikes against Israeli targets launched by Hezbollah’s close strategic partner Iran.

Hezbollah artillery units also targeted Israeli command positions in the Taybeh region, Rab Thalathin and Oudaiseh, while also firing on Israeli reinforcements that were dispatched to evacuate casualties. The paramilitary group reports regarding further strikes: “the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War (Kyria) in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks belonging to the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv, with a number of special missiles.”

The bulk of Israeli armour losses occurred in a single engagement between the towns of Taybeh and Qantara, after Israeli units reportedly “advanced to carry out a manoeuvre aiming to seize control of the area.” Hezbollah’s official statement observed that its personnel “monitored them and prepared to lure the enemy into a well-planned ambush,” with the result that its forces “succeeded in thwarting the enemy’s manoeuvre, inflicting losses including 10 Merkava tanks and D9 bulldozers.”

The results of the successes reported to have been achieved by Hezbollah units represent the most extreme losses Israeli armour has suffered in over 40 years since the early stages of the Lebanon War when Merkavas and older U.S.-supplied tanks engaged newly operationalised Syrian Army T-72 tanks and anti-tank guided weapons.

One Merkava tank costs ~$6 million. The IDF acknowledged the deaths of just 4 personnel although the death toll is probably much much higher.

🔗 https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel-largest-tank-losses-40yrs-ambushes-21-merkava

✡️ Israeli settler invokes biblical justification for genocide

The Holy Torah grants permission to expel every single gentile who opposes the notion of a Greater Israel, claims a settler on Israeli TV.

💬 “We will dispossess and expel,” he rants, “because there is no way for us to live here in the land of Israel if we don’t expel them from here.”

👍 US-Israel-Iran war | @geopolitics_prime

#BREAKING

🇾🇪❌🇮🇱❗️ — Sirens sound in Beersheba and surrounding towns in southern Israel due to a ballistic missile attack from Yemen!

Houthis joined the Third Gulf War!

@BellumActaNews

❗️🇮🇷⚡️🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ Iranian intelligence has arrested three people in Kermanshah who were under the control of the Israeli intelligence service "Mossad".

They were planning sabotage attacks on strategic targets and assassinations of Iranian military personnel, according to the Iranian state television and radio company.

🚨 USS Gerald R. Ford ‘out of action’ — ex-Indian general

The Iran war is effectively over for the damaged USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, retired Indian Major General Gagan Deep Bakshi said.

🪖 The warship is “out of the combat area” and will soon head back to the US, he added — meaning the carrier’s 70 deck-based fighter jets are effectively sidelined.

👉 At least 600 sailors were earlier relocated after a fire broke out in a laundry area of the $13 billion carrier. The blaze was not combat-related, according to US officials.

👍 US-Israel-Iran war | @geopolitics_prime