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Europe Seeks to Defuse Iran Crisis as Trump Says Military Option Still On U.S. Carried Out Cyberattacks on Iran
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — United States Cyber Command on Thursday conducted online attacks against an Iranian intelligence group that American officials believe helped plan the attacks against oil tankers in recent weeks, according to people briefed on the operation.
The intrusion occurred the same day President Trump called off a strike on Iranian targets like radar and missile batteries. But the online operation was allowed to go forward because it was intended to be below the threshold of armed conflict — using the same shadow tactics that Iran has deployed.
The online attacks, which had been planned for several weeks, were ultimately meant to be a direct response to both the tanker attacks this month and the downing of an American drone this week, according to the people briefed on the operations.
Multiple computer systems were targeted, according to people briefed on the operations, including those believed to have been used by an Iranian intelligence group that helped plan the tanker attacks.
An additional breach, according to one person briefed on the operations, targeted other computer systems that control Iranian missile launches.
Determining the effectiveness of a cyberattack on the missile launch system is particularly difficult. Its effectiveness could be judged only if Iran tried to fire a missile and the launch failed.
The online operation was first reported Friday by Yahoo News. Few details are known, but the breach was meant to take the Iranian intelligence group offline for a time, similar to one that temporarily took down Russia’s Internet Research Agency in November during and immediately after the United States’ midterm elections.
On Saturday, Christopher C. Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, issued a warning about Iranian attacks on American industries and government agencies, saying “malicious cyberactivity” was on the rise.
“We will continue to work with our intelligence community and cybersecurity partners to monitor Iranian cyberactivity, share information and take steps to keep America and our allies safe,” Mr. Krebs said.
Such intrusions by Iran do more than just steal data and money — they also seek to delete data or take down entire networks. “What might start as an account compromise, where you think you might just lose data, can quickly become a situation where you’ve lost your whole network,” Mr. Krebs warned.
Beyond the online operation, American military and intelligence officials also are trying to devise other operations that would not escalate tensions with Iran but would try to deter further aggressions and prod Tehran to stop, or dial back, its shadow war, according to current and former officials.
The downing of an American drone on Thursday underlined the already tense relations between the countries after Mr. Trump’s recent accusations that Iran was to blame for explosions this month that crippled two oil tankers near the vital Strait of Hormuz. Iran has denied that accusation.
Mr. Trump’s decision on Thursday to call off military strikes — even as planes were in the air and ships were in position — has given Tehran a chance to try to de-escalate the situation. But if Iran instead targets additional oil tankers or fires missiles at other aircraft, the United States will need to take actions to try to re-establish deterrence, current and former officials said.
Scrambling to extend a reprieve in the Iran crisis on Saturday after President Trump’s aborted military strike, Britain, France and other European countries reached out to the Iranians for dialogue and urged restraint on all sides.Scrambling to extend a reprieve in the Iran crisis on Saturday after President Trump’s aborted military strike, Britain, France and other European countries reached out to the Iranians for dialogue and urged restraint on all sides.
Britain’s Foreign Office said it had dispatched its minister of state for the Middle East, Andrew Murrison, for talks in Tehran. The French government said it had also dispatched an envoy, Emmanuel Bonne, to Iran. Tensions with Europe have grown since May 2018, when Mr. Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear agreement that had been negotiated by the Obama administration. Although Iran has honored the accord, Mr. Trump has asserted it is temporary and too weak. He has reimposed old sanctions and added new ones, including steps to choke all exports of Iranian oil, the country’s main revenue source.
And the office of the European Union’s top foreign policy official, Federica Mogherini, emphasized what it called the need for “exclusively diplomatic routes” to address tensions. American officials said they believed Iran would hold off from more strikes on tankers or American aircraft. But unless the United States is able to find a way to re-establish deterrence, Iran will most likely resume its attacks in hopes of pressuring Washington to reduce its economic sanctions.
Mr. Trump, who ordered then scrubbed armed retaliation against the Iranians on Thursday for having downed an American spy drone, told reporters at the White House on Saturday that military action was still possible. Mr. Trump on Saturday renewed his warning to Iran, saying that he did not expect Tehran to strike another drone or initiate another attack, but that American military action remained a possibility.
But he suggested economic pressure was his preferred alternative to a threat of war between Iran and the United States over what his administration has described as Iran’s increasingly nefarious activities in the Middle East. “We have a tremendously powerful military force in that area,” he said. “It’s always on the table until we get this solved.”
“We are putting additional sanctions on Iran,” Mr. Trump told reporters before departing for the Camp David presidential retreat. “In some cases, we are going slowly, but in other cases we are moving rapidly.” Iran’s leaders, who have repeatedly rejected discussions with the Trump administration, have shown no softening in their position.
The crisis has been slowly building since May 2018 when Mr. Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear agreement, negotiated by President Barack Obama’s administration. The deal relaxed some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable commitments of peaceful nuclear work. Punctuating that defiance, state-run news media said on Saturday that the authorities had executed an Iranian military contractor on charges of spying for the C.I.A. No date of the execution was provided for the contractor, identified as Jalal Haji Zavar, nor was the precise nature of the spying accusations.
Although Iran has honored the accord, Mr. Trump has asserted it is temporary and too weak. He has reimposed old sanctions and added new ones, including steps to choke all exports of Iranian oil, the country’s main revenue source. The episode appears unrelated to the cyberstrike on Thursday. State news media reported that Mr. Zavar’s contract with the Defense Ministry had ended in 2010 and that his wife, a co-conspirator, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. While executions are not uncommon in Iran, the announcement of the death penalty for an espionage defendant, just a few days after the downing of the drone, appeared deliberate.
Iran’s leaders, who have publicly and repeatedly rejected any discussions with the Trump administration, have shown no softening in their position. On Monday, Iranian officials claimed they had exposed a large online espionage network run by the C.I.A. But the claim appeared to be a reference to an old operation, when Tehran infiltrated a C.I.A. communications network more than eight years ago.
Punctuating their defiance, Iran state-run media said Saturday that the authorities had executed an Iranian defense contractor on charges of spying for the C.I.A. The effect of Thursday’s cyberattack is almost certain to be temporary. Computer networks taken offline can, with work, be restored to regular operations.
No date of the execution was provided for the contractor, identified as Jalal Haji Zavar, nor was the precise nature of the spying accusations. But reports in the state media said his contract with the Defense Ministry had ended in 2010 and that his wife, a co-conspirator, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Such attacks are most effective when done in coordination with other actions, and at best they will set back — but not eliminate — an adversary’s military abilities. The Iranian intelligence operatives will be able to restore their computer systems, just as the Internet Research Agency restored its network after the midterm election operation.
While executions are not uncommon in Iran, the announcement of the death penalty for an espionage defendant, just a few days after the downing of the drone, appeared deliberate. American cyberattacks on North Korea’s missile program may have contributed to a series of launch failures. But even if those attacks were successful, Pyongyang eventually restored the ability to test-launch the country’s long-range missiles.
Iran also protested to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for having permitted United States forces to launch the drone from that country.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran disapproves of provision of facilities for foreign forces for the purpose of any aggression against the Iranian sea, ground and air frontiers,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s department of Persian Gulf Affairs said.
The United States has asserted the drone was outside of Iranian airspace when it was downed by a ballistic missile launched by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has asserted the drone was in Iran’s territory when it was destroyed. He posted on Twitter what he said were the exact coordinates of its location.
The downing of the drone was among the most brazen actions the Iranian military has taken to counter what Tehran’s leaders see as intensified American bullying under Mr. Trump.
Possibly emboldened by their success in downing the drone, some Iranian commanders reinforced the message on Saturday with bombastic warnings to the United States.
“Threat for threat means that if the enemy fires a single bullet at us, it will receive 10 bullets and have to pay a heavy cost,” Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for the armed forces, said in an interview with the state-run Tasnim News Agency.
“A military mistake from the enemy, particularly from the U.S. and its regional allies, will be tantamount to firing at a powder keg,” General Shekarchi said, “and it will set the region ablaze and burn up the U.S., its interests and its allies.”
America’s European allies, who have sought to preserve the Iranian nuclear deal, have been placed in an increasingly awkward position over the standoff between the United States and Iran.
The Europeans share some American concerns about Iran’s support for militant groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, but say the Trump administration’s repudiation of the nuclear accord was a mistake. They also are concerned about Iran’s warnings that it will no longer abide by some provisions of the accord unless the country starts receiving the promised economic benefits.
Part of Mr. Murrison’s diplomatic trip to Iran, the British Foreign Office said, was to “call for urgent de-escalation in the region and raise U.K. and international concerns about Iran’s regional conduct and its threat to cease complying with the nuclear deal to which the U.K. remains fully committed.”