The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it was suspending all trade, commercial, and financial exchanges with Iran following an Iranian missile attack near its coast. The country's defense ministry said that two ballistic missiles had been launched from Iran to target maritime traffic, and that one fell into the sea inside Emirati territorial waters. It was the first attack to trigger an emergency phone alert in the UAE since June, although the UAE accused Iran of attacking ships operated by its national oil company in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in August. Prior to the attack, Iran and the UAE had resumed some diplomatic and economic exchanges, including Iranian flights to Emirati airports.
News Briefs
August 18, 2026
-- Financial Times
August 11, 2026
Iran has adapted its military tactics by launching sustained combined drone and missile attacks and using drone swarms to gather targeting information. In July, Iranian forces launched successive waves of drones and ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan over five consecutive days. The repeated attacks caused U.S. forces to expend Patriot interceptor missiles, enabling an Iranian missile to penetrate air defenses and kill three U.S. soldiers on the fifth day. More than 100 other troops were wounded and several aircraft were also damaged in Jordan that week. In April, Iranian forces used a swarm of loitering drones to acquire and transmit the location, speed, and direction of a U.S. F-15 aircraft in Iranian airspace, enabling it to be shot down by a shoulder-fired air defense missile.
-- New York Times
August 10, 2026
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appointed several new senior military and security leaders. Former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Mohsen Rezaei replaced Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's highest security decision-making body. Rezaei had commanded the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War. Hossein Taeb was appointed commander of the Basij paramilitary force, a position he held during the suppression of domestic protests in 2009. Ahmad Vahidi was also confirmed as the overall commander of the IRGC, and four other commanders were also formally appointed, including the commander of the IRGC Navy.
-- Wall Street Journal
July 28, 2026
Iran contracted to purchase between 300 and 400 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) from China, which it expects to receive within weeks. Reuters sources claimed that the contract is worth USD $60-70 million and includes Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles capable of engaging helicopters, drones, and low-flying fixed-wing aircraft. The contract was signed by Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, a Hong Kong subsidiary of Beijing-based company Zhong Qing Bao Shang Group serving as an intermediary between Iran and the Chinese supplier. The parties to the transaction agreed for the shipment to initially travel by air from Urumqi, China, and then transit through Pakistan to Iran. China's foreign ministry and the Pakistani military denied the report. Western intelligence sources and an Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran has also considered using overland routes to transport Chinese military supplies and dual-use goods to Iran.
-- Reuters
July 23, 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel traveled to Yemen with missile- and drone-related equipment on a Mahan Air flight from Tehran to Sana'a on July 13, according to Yemen's internationally-recognized government and Iranian sources. The aircraft had originally brought a Houthi delegation to Tehran on July 3 for the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Iranian sources said the return flight contained between 10 and 21 IRGC military advisers, including senior commanders, who intended to train the Houthis on a new missile system and who also brought gold intended to fund Houthi operations. The aircraft was forced to divert to Hodeidah when the Yemeni government carried out an airstrike on the Sana'a airport before the plane could land. The incident prompted the Houthis to declare a naval blockade against Saudia Arabia, whom they blamed for the airport strike.
-- Reuters
July 21, 2026
Israeli intelligence concluded that Iran moved thousands of gas centrifuges to its Pickaxe Mountain (Mount Kolang) underground nuclear site following the June 2025 war. The site contains a fortified tunnel network and was originally commissioned as a replacement for a centrifuge assembly facility at Natanz that was damaged by sabotage in 2020. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not had access to the site and has received no information from Iran about its purpose beyond a 2021 statement that Iran intended to carry out nuclear activities there. Israel believes that centrifuges were transferred there in the fall of 2025. Pickaxe Mountain has not been struck during the 2026 war between Iran and the United States and Israel, but U.S. President Donald Trump stated that it is a possible target for a U.S. attack.
-- Wall Street Journal
July 14, 2026
U.S. national Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi was convicted in federal court of conspiring to violate and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR) by illegally exporting electronic components from the United States to Iran. Sadeghi worked for a Massachusetts-based microelectronics manufacturer and helped Mohammad Abedininajafabadi (Abedini) procure export-controlled U.S. origin components for Abedini’s Iran-based company, San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co. (SDRA), which manufactures Sepehr navigation systems used in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)'s military drone program, as well as in cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Sadeghi helped transfer U.S.-origin goods, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, inertial measurement units, and semiconductors, through Abedini's Switzerland-based front company Illumove SA after arranging a contract between Illumove and his employer. A Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recovered after a 2024 attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan had a navigation system manufactured by SDRA. Abedini remains at large.
-- U.S. Department of Justice Press Release
June 24, 2026
Iranian entities moved more than $3.84 billion since 2019 through CoinEx, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange founded by Chinese engineer Haipo Yang. Wallets hosted by CoinEx received hacked cryptocurrency obtained by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and transacted directly with accounts later attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). To discover the activity, analytical firm TRM Labs traced stablecoins from wallets attributed to the CBI, including funds linked to $1.5 billion stolen by North Korean hackers. The funds progressed through multiple blockchains and cryptocurrencies to wallets hosted by Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, before being transferred to CoinEx accounts and rendered untraceable through a series of additional steps.CoinEx became Nobitex’s largest foreign counterparty by 2024, after the United States penalized Binance for allowing Iranian customers to use its platform. More than $763 million moved between CoinEx and Nobitex in 2025. Between 2022 and 2025, CoinEx-hosted wallets processed transactions for Alireza Derakhshan, an Iranian individual allegedly involved in an oil sales network sanctioned by the United States in 2025. CoinEx wallets also sent and received funds from wallets attributed to Zedcex, a London-registered cryptocurrency exchange connected to IRGC-linked sanctions evader Babak Zanjani. CoinEx denied facilitating direct transactions on behalf of Iranian or sanctioned entities.
-- Wall Street Journal
June 23, 2026
A U.S. pilot recalled seeing multiple Iranian drones hover together in formation before he was shot down in Iranian airspace in April, according to four sources familiar with his intelligence debriefing. The pilot reported a formation resembling a jellyfish, with large drones above and smaller drones underneath. The pilot was concussed during the crash, but if his recollection is correct it could indicate that Iran has developed a meshed networking capability. Meshed networking allows multiple drones to be controlled at once by one operator. Russia and China are believed to have the capability, and two CNN sources said that there have been reports indicating that Russia and China have assisted Iran in developing its drone technology.
-- CNN
June 19, 2026
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with French media that France would not approve the lifting of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran unless Paris is satisfied by the terms of a final agreement reached between Iran and the United States. He stated that there would not be stability in the Middle East unless U.S.-Iran talks addressed Iran's ballistic missile program and support for proxy militants in addition to the Iranian nuclear program.
-- Reuters