Iran's big lessons from 12 days of war with Israel

Iran's parliament has adopted a range of measures following lessons "learned" regarding its recent confrontation with Israel, as it aims to plug the serious security gaps revealed during the 12 days of hostilities.

Israel's war on Iran began on 13 June when it launched a series of surprise attacks that killed prominent Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists, revealing significant weaknesses in Tehran's security apparatus.

The Iranian government is now working to plug the identified security breaches, expecting the next round of confrontation to be just a matter of time.

New laws

During the war, the Iranian parliament passed a new law strengthening penalties against individuals caught spying and collaborating with Israel or other hostile states, which coincided with a major crackdown on suspected spymasters.

According to the law, any intelligence or operational activity on behalf of Israel or hostile states will be considered as "corruption on earth" with execution as the maximum penalty.

It also prohibits the use of unlicensed online communication systems, such as Elon Musk's Starlink, as well as contacting "hostile" foreign media outlets.

Last Sunday, another new law was approved regulating the use and ownership of non-military drones, prohibiting the import of civilian drones unless official approval is obtained, and banning foreigners from purchasing them.

It will also require the technical specifications of purchased drones to be registered along with the owner's identity, and the police will be responsible for issuing official documents related to the devices.

The enactment of this law follows the extensive use of drones by Israel in its recent multipronged assault, with huge numbers of small unmanned aerial devices reportedly found stashed in vehicles across the country, with thousands found in Tehran alone. Several secret drone assembly warehouses were also discovered and dismantled across Iran, including a huge industrial workshop in southern Tehran.

Internet restrictions

During the recent war, Iran's authorities imposed tight restrictions on internet access, including periods of total internet blackout and the blocking of GPS services.

Iranian military expert Morteza Mousavi told The New Arab's sister publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the primary goal of these restrictions was to thwart assassination and sabotage attempts by Mossad cells, and to prevent the Israeli military from using these services to carry out aerial attacks on Iranian cities.

He said Israel's "Spice" guided bomb, for example, relies primarily on GPS, which prompted Iran to disable the service in the final days of the war.

Mousavi believes GPS could continue to be blocked in the future due to its "important role in espionage and bombing" and noted plans to use alternative domestic, Russian, or Chinese navigation satellite systems such as GLONASS and BeiDou.

He added that some "proxy groups" had been detected using Starlink terminals to secure satellite communication close to strategic sites in the country.

However, Iranian legal expert Hamidreza Ebrahimi expressed concerns about the restrictions, stressing that they had been imposed by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace with no clear appeal mechanisms.

While such restrictions were in line with international conventions when necessitated through public security concerns, he said they needed to be taken through transparent and democratic legal processes where those harmed could appeal, which was not the case here.

He added that the measures have resulted in damage to businesses, medical and education services and others, and violated freedom of expression and information exchange.

Playing to Iran's strengths

Iranian military expert Vahid Khazab said that while Israel's major strengths lay in its aerial power and intelligence, and security capabilities, Iran's was its offensive rocket capabilities, particularly its arsenal of ballistic missiles.

Following their success in breaching Israeli defences in the war, Iranian authorities concluded that these capabilities must be enhanced, in particular by progressing with developing their "new generation" of ballistic missiles.

In terms of its weaknesses, Iran had identified several major security gaps that needed resolving.

During the war, around 700 individuals were arrested on charges of spying for Israel, which included a number of Afghans and other foreigners.

Khazab said that while most of the alleged spies arrested were Iranian, there was a significant number of Afghans, who make up around 95 percent of Iran's foreign-born population, which had led Tehran to take several measures, such as a deportation campaign targeting refugees entering the country irregularly.

However, some have argued that the level of security infiltration exposed during Israel's assault was too great to be eliminated by such measures without real agents being reached.

Khazab also said traditional smuggling routes into Iran - especially via Iraq - had been identified as a key security weakness, by which weapons such as small drones and spike missiles had covertly entered the country.

He said there were plans to raise operational readiness by 100 percent under the principle of "autonomous firing" for all offensive and defensive units, so that they could act immediately without waiting for central instructions.

He noted that air defence units are also being modernised and equipped with new systems for continuous, 24-hour airspace monitoring, including advanced "Majid" systems, which contain missiles equipped with thermal detonators and optical seekers capable of accurately tracking targets.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.