Iran warns Israel that if it goes ahead with a retaliation for last week’s attack, Tehran will respond in kind and also pursue a nuclear weapon.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that it would attack Israel’s nuclear sites and may pursue a nuclear weapon if the country strikes at Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The development came on Thursday, after Israeli officials promised a response to Iran’s unprecedented attacks on Israel last week, which were a retaliation for the Israeli military’s suspected targeting of Tehran’s consulate in Syria.

“The nuclear facilities of the Zionist enemy have been identified and all the necessary information from all targets is at our disposal,” the IRGC’s Brigadier General Ahmad Haghtalab was quoted as saying by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news website.

“Our fingers are on the trigger of firing strong missiles to destroy the designated targets in response to a potential attack by them,” said the commander of the IRGC division that is tasked with protecting Iranian nuclear facilities.

Haghtalab also gave what is Iran’s highest-level and most direct warning yet that it may abandon its stated policy of refraining from building a nuclear bomb.

“If the fake Zionist regime wants to use the threat of attacking the nuclear centres of our country as a tool, reconsidering the doctrine and policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and deviating from previously stated considerations would be likely and imaginable,” he said.

Iran’s top nuclear facilities, especially the installations at Natanz in central Isfahan, have been subject to multiple significant sabotage attacks blamed on Israel amid a shadow war in more than a decade that also saw several Iranian nuclear scientists assassinated.

But Israel has never directly attacked Iranian soil, let alone its nuclear facilities.

In March 2022, after several high-profile sabotage attacks and as the IRGC said it foiled yet another attack, the new nuclear security command unit of the elite force was first publicly mentioned.

Iran is currently enriching uranium up to 60 percent, which is a short technical step from the more than 90 percent enrichment required for an atomic bomb.

The country also possesses enough fissile material for several bombs, making it a threshold nuclear state.

But it has yet to start on further steps required to actually build a bomb, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US intelligence assessments.

Even as Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers gradually faltered following the 2018 unilateral withdrawal by the United States, Tehran had so far said it had no plans to pursue a nuclear weapon.

The warning on Thursday comes as top Iranian political and military leaders have promised a quick and strong response if Israel decides to attack.

Hassan Abedini, an Iranian state media executive and adviser, on Thursday in a post on X published photos of meeting Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the aerospace chief of the IRGC.

According to him, Hajizadeh said the force refrained from using its main ballistic missiles during last week’s attack, including the Khorramshahr, Sajil, Haj Qassem, Kheibar Shekan-2, and the Fattah family of hypersonic missiles.

The IRGC used “minimum capability” and is ready for another significant attack, he was quoted as saying, likely in response to claims by US military officials that Iran depleted a considerable portion of its long-range ballistic missile arsenal.

MANADO, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities closed an airport and residents left homes near an erupting volcano Thursday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami.

Mount Ruang on the northern side of Sulawesi Island had at least five large eruptions Wednesday, causing the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation to issue its highest-level alert, indicating an active eruption.

The crater emitted white-gray smoke continuously during the day Thursday, reaching more than 500 meters (1,600 feet) above the peak.

People have been ordered to stay at least 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the 725-meter (2,378 foot) mountain. More than 11,000 people live in the affected area and were told to leave. At least 800 have done so.

An international airport in Manado city was temporarily closed Thursday as volcanic ash was spewed into the air.

“We have to close flight operations at Sam Ratulangi Airport due to the spread of volcanic ash, which could endanger flight safety,” said Ambar Suryoko, head of the regional airport authority.

Eruptions Wednesday evening spewed volcanic ash approximately 70,000 feet into the atmosphere, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. The bureau said in a statement Thursday it was tracking and forecasting the ash dispersion.

Indonesia’s volcanology center noted the risks from the volcanic eruption include the possibility that part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami. In December 2018, Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano island erupted and collapsed, losing around 3/4 its volume and triggering a powerful tsunami that killed more than 400 people. An 1871 eruption at Mount Ruang also triggered a tsunami.

Tagulandang Island, east of the Ruang volcano, could be at risk if a collapse occurred. Its residents were among those being told to evacuate.

“People who live in the Tagulandang Island area and are within a 6-kilometer radius must be immediately evacuated to a safe place outside the 6-kilometer radius,” Abdul Muhari, spokesperson of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said Thursday. “And especially those who live near the coast should be aware of the potential for incandescent rocks to erupt, hot clouds and tsunami waves that could be triggered by the collapse of a volcanic body into the sea.”

The agency said residents will be relocated to Manado, the nearest city, on Sulawesi island — a six-hour journey by boat.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

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AP writer Rod McGuirk contributed from Sydney.

JERUSALEM — Some of Israel’s most advanced military technology was on display over the weekend when its multi-level aerial defense array led the way in striking down an estimated 99% of the more than 350 drones, rockets and missiles that were fired by Iran in an unprecedented attack on the Jewish state.

From the Iron Dome, which in its latest format uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve accuracy when shooting short-range surface-to-surface rockets, to David’s Sling, which intercepts short- to medium-range and medium- to long-range surface-to-surface missiles, to the Arrow 2 and 3 systems, which is used for longer-range ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as AI-driven aircraft and other technology, Israel’s defensive operation proved it was far superior to the offensive capabilities of the Islamic Republic. 

In a press briefing following the attack, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari hailed Israel’s defensive operation, which was carried out together with partners from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), as a “very significant strategic achievement.” He said it demonstrated the “exceptional professionalism” of Israel’s Aerial Defense Array and the “defensive abilities of the air force as well as the army’s military and technological superiority.”

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Tal Mimran, of the Cyber Security Research Center in the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University, told Fox News Digital that broader cyber methods and even AI technology were also likely used in the successful defense operation.

“AI-powered algorithms analyze radar and other sensor data to track incoming missiles and calculate the best time to intercept these more effectively and prioritize targets,” he said. “AI makes the system more effective against a wider range of threats, like drones and other small, low-flying objects.”

Mimran said the Iron Dome, which Israel has been using for more than a decade to thwart rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon, now uses a “significant application of AI to improve system accuracy.”

“Using AI increases the Iron Dome’s success rate to over 90% and reduces operating costs,” he said. “This is important because these threats are becoming increasingly common and pose a challenge to traditional air defense systems, as is evident in the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Mimran also noted that over the past few months “IDF officials have acknowledged using AI-based tools for several purposes, including targeting support, intelligence analysis, proactive forecasting and streamlined command and control.” 

According to Mimran, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has spotlighted the IDF’s Habsora, or “the Gospel,” an AI-based system that is used to generate possible military targets for attack. However, he said, accusations that the IDF has been using AI systems to commit mass assassinations give too much credit to the AI-powered tools currently in use. 

Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, played down the role of AI in the weekend operation, telling Fox News Digital that while the technology is incorporated in some air force systems, “a live event with 300 incoming projectiles cannot be left to AI; there needs to be responsible human in the loop making real-time decisions.”

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Dozens of Israeli Air Force planes were deployed to intercept UAVs and cruise missiles launched from Iran over the weekend. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)

“I know that senior air force personnel were involved in controlling every aspect of this,” said Conricus, a former IDF spokesperson for the international media. “I find it hard to believe that any significant part of the targeting done [over the weekend] was done with AI.”

He said that over the past six months – since Oct. 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas carried out a brutal attack in southern Israel, sparking a full-blown war in Gaza and daily rocket fire by the militant Shiite terror group Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border, too – Israel has been forced to utilize its innovative missile defense technology.

“All of the systems have been fully operational since Oct. 7 and all have confirmed real-world hits,” Conricus said, adding that Israel’s newest layer of aerial defense, the Arrow 3 system, debuted just a few months ago by intercepting ballistic missiles fired by the Yemen-based Houthis, an extremist Islamist group that is supported and funded by the fundamentalist Islamist regime in Tehran. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are also Iranian proxies.

Israeli defense systems intercept an Iranian missile over Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem, in the early hours of April 14, 2024. (Matanya Reichman/TPS)

“I think that today what we have is a pretty solid and well-rounded air defense that deals with a very wide array and broad spectrum of incoming threats, from very small and fast projectiles like UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to extremely large and lethal ballistic missiles, which are also very fast, tremendously big and carry a ton of explosives,” he said.

Iran’s attack on Sunday – the first ever directly from its soil – brought together all the different tiers of Israel’s defensive system, Conricus said. 

“They are all interlinked and communicate with each other,” he said, describing how a central command office provided an overall picture of the attack as it unfolded, giving a threat assessment in real time and coordinating the entire operation with the U.S. and other CENTCOM partners.

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Iran on April 14 urged Israel not to retaliate militarily to the Islamic Republic’s unprecedented attack over the weekend, which Tehran presented as a justified response to Israel’s recent deadly strike on Iran’s consulate building in Damascus, Syria. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

Conricus said that while many of the innovative defense systems were created by Israel, “a large part of the development was also carried out with the Americans,” allowing “the radar systems and the digital intercepting systems” to communicate with U.S. defense systems.”

“They were developed together with congressional funding and support,” he said, explaining that there were “a lot of plug-and-play capabilities” and, if needed, the U.S. systems can easily connect with the Israeli system.

According to Israeli army estimates, Iran fired some 30 cruise missiles, 120 ballistic missiles and 170 suicide drones that carried about 60 tons of warheads and explosives combined. While most of the projectiles were shot down before reaching Israel’s borders, two air force bases were lightly hit and a 7-year-old Israeli girl was seriously injured. Forces from the U.S., British and French militaries, as well as from several countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, participated in the operation.

“To coordinate such an attack is not an easy task because all three weapon systems have [different] velocities and performances,” said Tal Inbar, a senior research fellow at Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. 

He said that the UAVs, mostly Iranian-produced Shahed 136s, would have been fired first because they move at the slowest pace; followed by the cruise missiles and finally the ballistic missiles, which have a relatively short flight time from Iran to Israel, depending on the launch site.

U.S. CENTCOM Gen. Michael Kurilla, left, meets with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant amid rising tensions with Iran. (Ariel Hermoni/IMoD/File)

Inbar noted that Iran’s decision to use drones gave Israel several hours to “prepare itself to the maximum.”

In addition to deploying advanced missile defense systems and scrambling fighter planes, he said Israel also put in place some levels of cyberprotection, including disrupting satellite navigation, which is effective in stopping some of the projectiles from reaching their targets.

“Ballistic missiles cannot be jammed because they use an internal navigation system, but this is not the case with drones,” Inbar said, noting that Israelis have become used to GPS disturbances over the past six months.

Recent media reports also suggest that Israel deployed its new $1 billion spy plane, the Oron, which provided vital information that was used to track and destroy the drones and missiles in flight. The high-tech jet, which Israel unveiled at last year’s Paris Air Show, is equipped with thousands of advanced sensors. The Oron has the ability to scan vast terrain and gather an unprecedented amount of information at a considerable distance from the targets being tracked. When asked about the Oron spy plane, the IDF did not comment.