Tehran, Iran – Iran and the West are clashing over Tehran's alleged drone sales to Russia for the war in Ukraine, an issue now being linked to a UN resolution backing the country's nuclear deal with world powers. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 was unanimously adopted in 2015 to endorse the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the accord that Iran signed with China, Russia, United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany to get sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. The US unilaterally abandoned the accord in 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions that remain in place today. Efforts since April 2021 to restore the deal have stalled. European powers are now trying to use a periodic reporting mechanism in the resolution.

The Trump administration plans to reinterpret the deal between 34 nations in order to allow U.S. defence contractors to sell more American-made drones to various nations, three defence industry executives and a U.S. official told Reuters.

Washington – The Trump administration plans to reinterpret a Cold War-era arms agreement between 34 nations with the goal of allowing U.S. defense contractors to sell more American-made drones to a wide array of nations, three defense industry executives and a U.S. official told Reuters. The policy change, which has not been previously reported, could open up sales of armed U.S. drones to less stable governments such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates that in the past have been forbidden from buying them under the 33-year-old Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), said the U.S. official, a former U.S. official and one of the executives. It could also undermine longstanding MTCR compliance from countries such as Russia, said the U.S. official, who has direct knowledge of the policy shift. Reinterpreting the MTCR is part of a broader Trump administration effort to sell more weapons overseas. It has overhauled a broad range of arms export regulations and removed the U.S. from international arms treaties including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – High above Yemen's rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. Across the Middle East, countries locked out of purchasing U.S.-made drones due to rules over excessive civilian casualties are being wooed by Chinese arms dealers, the world's main distributor of armed drones. "The Chinese product now doesn't lack technology, it only lacks market share," said Song Zhongping, a Chinese military analyst and former lecturer at the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force University of Engineering.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is nearing completion of new "buy American" rules to make it easier to sell U.S.-made military drones overseas and compete against fast-growing Chinese and Israeli rivals, senior U.S. officials said. While President Donald Trump's aides work on relaxing domestic regulations on drone sales to select allies, Washington will also seek to renegotiate a 1987 missile-control pact with the aim of loosening international restrictions on U.S. exports of unmanned aircraft, according to government and industry sources. At home, the U.S. administration is pressing ahead with its revamp of drone export policy under heavy pressure from American manufacturers and in defiance of human rights advocates who warn of the risk of fueling instability in hot spots including the Middle East and South Asia. The changes, part of a broader effort to overhaul U.S. arms export protocols, could be rolled out by the end of the year under a presidential policy decree, the administration officials said on condition of anonymity. The aim is to help U.S. drone makers -- pioneers in remote-controlled aircraft that have become a centerpiece of counterterrorism strategy -- reassert themselves in the overseas market, where China, Israel and others often sell under less cumbersome restrictions.

While it may have been a disappointing holiday season for some drone makers, dollar-for-dollar drone sales in the United States have more than doubled over the past year. According to a new report from market research company the NPD Group, "premium" drones -- classified as anything over $300 -- were the biggest money makers for the twelve months starting in February 2016, but high-end features like autopilot and "follow-me" mode are now making their way into the best-selling consumer level devices. During the first two months of 2017, professional-level drones in the $1,000-plus category were the fastest selling, followed by drones and quadcopters in the $300-$500 price range, indicating that just slapping a decent camera on a quadcopter doesn't cut it anymore. As an NPD analyst notes, autopilot-equipped drones sold five times faster than dumber models and drones with a follow mode sold nineteen times faster during that two month period. Although the FAA now has more than 770,000 registered UAVs in the US, another wave of amateur pilots and hobbyists came online during the 2016 holiday season, when the sudden variety of cheap drones in the $50-$100 range made up about 42 percent of all the unit sales across the country.