Daily Archives: September 4, 2021

TEHRAN Expediting vaccination against the Coronavirus, improving the people's livelihood and fighting corruption, according to President Ebrahim Raisi, are the three main national priorities of the administration, at least until the end of the current Iranian year, which ends on March 20.

In this regard, the start of the president's intrusive trips to the less developed provinces of the country also indicates the special determination of the Raisi administration to counter poverty.

In a commentary on Friday, IRNA said one week after the first visit of Raisi to the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the president, like his first visit, paid a visit to Sistan-Balouchestan, one of the less developed provinces in the country to get first-hand information about the challenges and problems that the people face in this border province.

Arriving in Chabahar city in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchestan through Konarak airport on Thursday, the president immediately started touring different areas of Chabahar.

The trip was accompanied by the ministers of interior, energy, transport and urban development, economy, industry, mining and trade, the head of the planning and budget organization, and the chief of staff of the president.

Before the trip, the president in different economic meetings and the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control underlined the three important issues and the main promise of the administration, namely the vaccination project, providing basic goods as well as the fight against corruption.

Trip to less developed region

The first visit of the president and his cabinet members to Khuzestan on the first day of the official start of the administration was expected due to the very difficult conditions of the people of the province.

Campaign against the corruption virus can help improve the situation in society.The second trip to another province, namely Sistan-Balouchestan and visiting Chabahar, shows the determination of the administration to get acquainted with the economic problems of the people of that region and then to fight the root of poverty and inequality in the province that undermine trust and hope.

In his second provincial trip, the president visited Makran coasts where he was welcomed by the representative of the Leader in Sistan-Balouchestan, the provincial governor, and a group of other local officials.

Konarak city is one of the fishing poles in province and about 4,500 fishermen are working on the vessels of this pier. Upon arrival, President Raisi visited the Konarak fishing pier and met with the fishermen.

The second destination of the president was the poor suburb of Moradabad.

During this intrusive visit, Raisi listened to the problems raised by the residents of the area and then stated in a short remark: "Living in shelters is by no means a desirable form of life and a favorable situation for the people. Improving the situation our fellow Iranians in this region will be very good work."

After directly observing the realities on the ground, the president issued orders on how to accelerate improving the situation in this deprived area in a meeting of the administrative council of the province.

In the provincial administrative meeting on Thursday, the president emphasized: "We must have a good mechanism for the prosperity of production, and the issue of the development of Makran coasts must be taken into consideration and pursued in a special way.

The importance of Makran coasts and Chabahar port due to their access to high seas (the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean) through the ports of Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, is the most important reason for the president's second provincial trip.

The Makran and Chabahar regions have the potential to increase the province's economic development capacity and greatly reduce poverty in Sistan-Balouchestan.

The development of this region can create a kind of balance in terms of development in the north and south of the country. Creating jobs and economic opportunities and equal services will help significantly to eliminate discrimination and feelings of discrimination in ethnic and religious areas on which a number of Iran's enemies have counted on.

Understanding this important issue and awareness about the challenges is promising. It will help continue the process of fighting poverty by relying on the internal capacities and national and God-given resources of the country.

What is a priority for the administration?

In addition to addressing the issue of fighting poverty in less developed provinces, the administration and the president at the national level, have so far raised three main priorities as their most important concern, the first of which is how to deal with Coronavirus and national vaccination.

Before leaving for the border province, the president stressed the need to accelerate the supply of vaccines through imports and domestic products. He said: "One of the essential issues in the vaccination process is fair distribution of the vaccine based on priorities and the necessary arrangements must be made for its fair distribution in the provinces."

Proper distribution was also one of the interesting points that President Raisi underscored in his trip. It seems that it is of special importance to pay attention to this issue due to the various and uncoordinated statements.

"Remarks about the various aspects of the disease and related issues should be organized with the aim of creating maximum hope and avoiding anxiety and fear among the people," the president said.

He noted, "In no way should we prevent experts from commenting on corona, but we should note that the venue for expert discussions is not in the public, but in specialized forums and circles."

Another key issue is the provision of essential goods in the difficult days of the Coronavirus pandemic and the economic recession coupled with inflation.

In this regard, at a meeting of the government's economic coordination headquarters, Raisi said: "With the coordination and measures taken, the supply and storage of basic goods has enjoyed an acceptable trend and there is no problem in this regard."

The president had previously stressed that there were concerns about stocks of basic goods.

The third and, of course, one of the most fundamental issues for the administration is the serious and practical fight against corruption.

In the joint meeting of the presiding board of the Parliament and expert commissions of the Assembly of Experts on Thursday, the president pointed out that the fight against corruption and the fair distribution of facilities are among his administrations priorities.

"The administration will prevent special privileges for a certain number of individuals... The fact is that special privileges for some people along with corruption and discrimination have put more pressure on people, even more than the sanctions and corona."

Due to his precious experience in fighting corruption during his tenure as a top judge before being elected as president, the president can continue the struggle against corruption. Campaign against corruption can help eradicate the role of the corruption virus in society and improve the situation.

The rest is here:

National priorities and Raisi administration's determination to fight poverty - Tehran Times

Cullercoats Bay. Taken by Alan Farnworth

Once again I have been left in awe of our coastline from your wonderful photos capturing the beauty on our doorstep.

This week I have gone through the photos you have been sending in and chosen a handful of shots from the coastline up the North East coastline.

With miles of sandy beaches, ice cream shops to visit and long piers to walk down, there are plenty of things that draws us back.

There is something incredibly soothing about a walk on the beach, feeling the sand between your toes and breathing in sea air, so it is no surprise you love sending in photos from your coastal trips.

Here is a collection of your photos you have sent in. There are clearly a few favourite spots!

View from St Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear. Taken by Chris Rook.

Amble, Northumberland. Taken by Debs Lucas-Byrne.

St. Mary's Lighthouse. Taken by Nelson Allan.

Whitley Bay. Taken by Paul Cox.

Seaton Sluice, Northumberland. Taken by Mark Sweeney.

South Shields, Tyne and Wear. Taken by Jeffrey McHugh.

Marsden Beach. Taken by Mark Sweeney.

High Seas at Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear. Taken by Jayne Renwick.

Seaton Sluice Harbour. Taken by Roland Oliver.

If you'd like your photo to be considered for an area round up. Email them to community@ncjmedia.co.uk

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Your View: The North East coast - In Your Area

Mariners in the Red Sea have long been threatened by pirates, but they now must deal with a much more modern threat as well: unmanned explosive boats. Since 2017, Houthi forces in Yemen have been perfecting their use of maritime drones sometimes referred as unmanned surface vehicles, drone boats, or water-borne improvised explosive devices to carry out attacks against maritime vessels and port facilities in the region. While only one of these attacks to date has led to the loss of lives, others have caused material damage to a number of ships and led to the temporary shutdown of one of Saudi Arabias busiest ports.

Fortunately, there are a number of steps that governments and private maritime firms can take to counter the threat of maritime drones before it gets worse. Better intelligence sharing and evasive tactics coupled with proactive measures such as electronic jamming, water cannons, and boat nets can help keep commercial vessels safe as they pass by Yemen.

Tabulating the Threat

Open source research based on the same data collection methods used to study aerial drones reveals 24 successful or attempted Houthi maritime drone attacks carried out between January 2017 and June 2021. Tabulating these attacks offers some preliminary generalizations about target and location, while also highlighting the difficulty of making similar generalizations about timing.

The majority of all Houthi maritime drone attacks were directed at commercial shipping vessels such as tankers or freight carriers. Four targeted civilian ports and two targeted oil production and distribution facilities. This makes the total number of attacks against civilian and oil-related targets 16, or two-thirds of the total. These include commercial shipping vessels sailing under different flags, including Yemens and Singapores, but a majority have been Saudi carriers. As for location, these attacks have been clustered around Hodeidah, the Salif port, and Mocha. The first two locations are currently under Houthi control, while the more southern city of Mocha is not. In addition to these maritime drone attacks, the Houthis have also carried out aerial drone bombings, rocket-propelled grenade strikes from fast moving boats, and indiscriminate naval mining in the strait connecting the Red Sea with the Bay of Aden. It is harder to see patterns in the timing of Houthi maritime drone attacks, however. There is an average of 70 days between each attack, but some have been separated by a mere four days and others by as many as 217.

Proactive and Evasive Tactics

The maritime drone threat may be new, but in trying to counter it, navies and shipping companies can draw on their experience fighting piracy as well as on military efforts to counter aerial drones. The steps that have contributed to the decline in piracy off the coast of Somalia include evasive tactics as well as active countermeasures. Both are important in addressing the threat of Houthi maritime drones.

The first step is to maximize situational awareness for both military and civilian vessels. This means keeping track of recent attacks, actively seeking intelligence reports through open source services, and then sharing this information widely. Just as government agencies need to share their intelligence in the battle against terrorism, the civilian maritime community must do the same. This requires a system for sharing up-to-date situation reports with captains. These reports should contain information about attempted or successful maritime drone attacks as well as details about any other maritime threats or friendly naval forces in the area. Ideally, these reports would draw on the work of security or intelligence agencies, while being carefully vetted to avoid revealing sources and methods.

Armed with good situational awareness, military and civilian vessels in dangerous maritime environments can focus on identifying threats through visual recognition and patterns of movement. However, experimental research has revealed that the human ability to accurately detect hostile intent in surrounding vessels is limited, particularly when approaching vessels employed strategies to mask their intentions. This means that relying solely on human identification may not be sufficient. Fortunately, in contrast to many civilian and military installations on land, larger civilian and military maritime vessels are already equipped with radar technology. This makes detection, and possibly also identification, of approaching vessels possible, particularly when taking key visual and radar signatures into account. Advances in machine learning and improvements in configuring radar circuitry can help overcome ongoing challenges presented by sea clutter, rain, and fog.

Active Countermeasures

Many of the existing countermeasures used to safeguard civilian maritime vessels are directed at the personnel on board hostile ships. These include the use of armed guards to deter approaching vessels or engage their crews with small arms weaponry, as well as barbed wire on the sides of ships to prevent boarding and acoustic systems to inflict painful yet non-lethal harm on pirates. The problem is that all of these countermeasures have a human attacker as the common denominator. Hence, they are useless when a hostile unmanned vessel is approaching.

Instead, for maritime drones, it is important to focus on kinetic and mechanical options. Kinetic options would include projectiles targeting a maritime drones hull or engine that could slow it down or reduce its maneuverability. As commercial vessels are unlikely to be equipped with high-capacity Gatling gun defense systems, like the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System, high-caliber precision rifles are probably a more likely alternative for defensive measures.

Another option, first developed to be deployed from helicopters, is boat nets, which could render the propeller of an engine useless by restricting its movement. These could be adapted for use on ships. These nets must have a delivery system that enables the defending vessel to move away from the actual net after it is deployed so as to protect against any subsequent fail-safe detonations. Nets could be used as a stand-alone countermeasure or in combination with water cannons. Water cannons can not only deny approaching pirates access to a ship, but also fill their boats with water. This both slows the boat down as well as reduces its maneuverability. These systems can be remotely operated from the bridge of a ship and could also serve to help suppress onboard fires if an attack succeeds.

The application of these measures could be enhanced by deployment of threat-specific security personnel. Already, there are private maritime security companies in the Red Sea and the Bay of Aden. According to research by Katinka Svanberg, ships with private security forces on board have never been hijacked. But, of course, their success in deterring maritime drone attacks would be dependent on their having tools and techniques that interfere with the vessel itself rather than the humans on board the vessel.

Technologies used to combat aerial drones such as jamming and spoofing techniques, as well as high energy weapons, should also be adapted to the maritime environment. Both U.S. and British warships have already begun doing this, particularly after the latest attack on motor tanker Mercer Street off the coast of Oman. Jamming techniques may be used to bombard the receiver in this case, the attacking drone with noise signals, while spoofing techniques can be used to confuse the drone control device. High energy weapons such as laser systems and high-power microwave weapons can disrupt or disable internal electronics, rendering the attacking platform incapable of carrying out an attack. These techniques are currently being tested by U.S. armed forces against aerial drones and should be adapted to the maritime environment.

That said, there is only so much a commercial vessel can handle on its own. Obviously, all of the evasive and countermeasures above are unlikely to be used in a non-military context. This is especially true of the more technologically advanced measures for identification and jamming as well as high-capacity projectile weaponry. This means naval vessels that have patrolled the area since 2019 should continue their valuable work. More broadly, a generous flow of experience and knowledge between both military and commercial actors at sea can help strengthen anti-drone efforts.

Finally, more aggressive naval action could also play a role in countering the Houthi maritime threat. Since the Israeli attack on the Iranian ship MV Saviz on April 6, 2021, only two Houthi maritime drone attacks have been confirmed. The Saviz is a cargo vessel that was used for offshore surveillance and for supporting the Houthis naval operations. It is worth paying careful attention to whether the attack on the Saviz, or its subsequent relocation, have an impact on Houthi naval operations.

Conclusion

The Houthi maritime threat is real and rising, as shown by the groups 24 attacks over the past four years. But commercial vessels are not defenseless. Better situational awareness, better measures to avoid approaching maritime drones, and better tools to disable them can all play a key role in keeping the Red Sea safe.

Looking forward, maritime security experts should be alert to the risk that technologies currently deployed by the Houthis will spread to other seas. Iran may be deliberately using the Red Sea as a testing area for new naval technologies, or the Houthis may be pioneering these technologies on their own. But either way, Iran will be eager to learn from the Houthis experiences and tactics. It will be important to develop effective countermeasures before maritime drones potentially appear in the Strait of Hormuz as well.

Hvard Haugstvedt is a Ph.D. research fellow at the Department of Social Studies, University of Stavanger, Norway, and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles about non-state actors use of armed unmanned aerial vehicles.

Image: U.S. Navy (Photo by Mass Communication Spc. Seaman Sawyer Connally)

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Red Sea Drones: How to Counter Houthi Maritime Tactics - War on the Rocks