Waging brutal repression at home and allegedly helping Russia in its war against Ukraine, Iran is becoming an unsolvable challenge for Western powers eager to avoid a new nuclear power in the Middle East. "We're in a delicate situation and an obvious impasse," a French diplomat admitted before Wednesday's UN Security Council meeting on suspected Iranian drone use by Russian forces. Despite Tehran's new support for an increasingly isolated Moscow, the United States and the European Union still hope to revive the 2015 deal aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear programme -- even though the prospect is dimming. "Iran's repression at home and aggression in Ukraine have increased the political cost for and decreased the appetite of the West to grant Tehran sanctions relief," said analyst Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group. "But the West has no good options, as the only thing worse than a repressive regime that kills its own people is a nuclear armed one that does so."

Iran has sent trainers to occupied Ukraine to help Russians overcome problems with the fleet of drones that they purchased from Tehran, according to current and former U.S. officials briefed on the classified intelligence, a further signal of the growing closeness between Iran and Russia since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The Iranian trainers are operating from a Russian military base in Crimea where many of the drones have been based since being delivered from Iran. The trainers are from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a branch of the Iranian military designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. In recent days, the Iranian drones have become an important weapon for Russia, which has used them as part of the broad strikes across Ukraine against electrical infrastructure and other civilian targets. The deployment of the Iranian trainers appears to coincide with the stepped-up use of the drones in Ukraine and indicates a deeper involvement by Iran in the war.

Petrochemical workers strike as demonstrations continue across Iran in defiance of the regime. The European Union sanctioned Iran on Monday for the death of a 22-year-old woman while in custody of the regime's so-called morality police and the subsequent violent crackdown on protests. Numerous Iranian law enforcement officials were added to the sanctions list, including two leaders of the morality police, Mohammad Rostami and Hajahmad Mirzaei. Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Issa Zarepour, was also sanctioned for his role in censoring the internet and social media during widespread protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was reportedly murdered by Iran's morality police.

Three Iranians have been charged with trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran and Israel, including a domestic violence shelter, by hacking in to their computer systems, US officials said on Wednesday. Other targets included local US governments, regional utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, accounting firms and a state lawyers' association, according to charges filed by the justice department. While the criminal charges do not say whether the alleged hackers worked for the Iranian government, a separate US treasury department statement said the hackers were affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an Iranian intelligence and security force. And just last week, the US imposed sanctions on Iran's ministry of intelligence and its minister, accusing them of being tied to a disruptive July cyber-attack on Albania and engaging in other cyber activities against the US and its allies. A senior official said on Wednesday that Iran's government does not discourage residents from engaging in hacking, as long as it is directed outside the country.

Tehran, Iran – The United Kingdom's defence ministry has backed a Ukrainian claim that Ukraine's forces likely shot down an Iranian-made drone that was used by Russia in its offensive against its neighbouring country. In its latest military intelligence update on Wednesday, the ministry said it was "highly likely" that Russia has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) made by Iran in the nearly seven-month war in Ukraine. "Russia is almost certainly increasingly sourcing weaponry from other heavily sanctioned states like Iran and North Korea as its own stocks dwindle," it said. The statement came a day after the Ukrainian military published several images and said it had likely shot down a drone near Kupiansk in Kharkiv that appeared to be an Iranian Shahed-136 model. The Iranian government has yet to comment on the claims, but its officials have previously denied supplying Russia with drones to be used in Ukraine, saying Iran would not assist either side in the war as it backed its resolution through dialogue. There are no known official specifications for the Shahed-136, but it is a so-called "suicide drone" that is capable of carrying a warhead over long distances.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface, and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Tehran, Iran – Iran has delivered a so-called "peace initiative" for ending the Ukraine war, proposed by a European leader, to Russia. Standing next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian confirmed that he had handed over the European proposal that he said was given to Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi. "There are ideas to help establish peace and stop the fighting in Ukraine, and I shared these ideas with Mr Lavrov," Amirabdollahian said. He did not name the European leader behind the initiative or reveal any further details but said the proposal includes points on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and prisoners of war. Recent shelling around the plant in southeastern Ukraine has spurred fears of a possible nuclear disaster and prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to deploy experts to visit the site.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The U.S. Navy stopped an Iranian ship from taking an American sea drone in the Arabian Gulf Monday night. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy was in the process of towing the drone, which belongs to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet at 11 p.m. local time when the American Navy immediately sent out the nearby Navy coastal ship USS Thunderbolt. The 5th Fleet also repeatedly called Iranian officials, who then let the drone go.