Tehran, Iran - Iran began counting ballots on Saturday after a vote for parliament and a key clerical body, with local media estimating a low turnout and conservatives expected to dominate. Friday's elections were the first since widespread protests triggered by the September 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini,...

An Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon killed three Hizbollah fighters, a security source said, the latest in almost five-months of escalating cross-border fire between the Iran-backed group and Israel. Since war erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Hizbollah has been launching near-daily attacks from Lebanon...

Global condemnation flowed after Israeli forces in war-ravaged Gaza opened fire as Palestinian civilians scrambled for food aid during a chaotic incident which the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said killed over 100 people. The Israeli military said a "stampede" occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38...

Iran announced the launch of a remote sensing and imaging satellite into orbit from Russia, according to state media. The launch of "Pars-I" with the Russian Soyuz-2.1b launcher was broadcast live by state television in Iran. The satellite was launched "from Russia's Vostochny launch base", some 8,000 kilometers east of...

Conservative daily Vatan-e-Emrouz hailed what it called the population's "interest in the candidates' electoral campaigns", which began on February 22. In Tehran, where less than 20 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in 2020, election banners are visibly less prevalent than the previous elections.

The US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, told a Senate subcommittee that Iran was "equipping and facilitating" the Huthi attacks, which have triggered retaliatory US and British strikes on Yemen. He said many Iranian and Hizbollah operatives support Houthi attacks from inside Yemen.

TEHRAN, IRAN – The Middle Eastern country has improved its global standing in steel production, becoming the ninth largest producer in January 2024, according to new data released by the World Steel Association (WSA). In the first month of 2024, Iranian steel mills produced a total of 2.6 million tons...

Tehran, Iran -- In a significant step towards enhancing energy cooperation between Pakistan and Iran, Islamabad has given the green signal for advancing much-delayed work on gas pipelines within its territory. This marked considerable progress in the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, Mehr News Agency reported. The approval comes as Pakistan...

Baalbek, Lebanon - Israeli strikes near the Hizbollah-dominated city of Baalbek killed two group members on Monday, two security sources told AFP, in the first strikes on Lebanon's east since clashes began after the Gaza war. "Two Hizbollah members were killed in the Israeli strikes near Baalbek," a security official told...

Tehran, Iran -  Pakistan has decided to link the gas pipeline from the country's Gwadar port city to the Iranian border as part of the Iran-Pakistan project. According to Pakistani media, the country will expedite the project, which faced significant delays, in two phases. Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC)...

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a British-owned cargo ship passing through the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, causing one minor injury and damage to the vessel. The rebels, who control much of Yemen, have carried out months of attacks on merchant vessels in...

An Israeli strike on a residential area of Damascus killed at least two people, Syrian state media reported, the latest deaths from an escalating Israeli air campaign since the Gaza war erupted in October. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011.

Tehran, Iran--Iran said Wednesday that Israel was behind twin sabotage attacks against gas pipelines that disrupted supplies in at least three provinces last week. The February 14 explosions hit pipelines in the cities of Safashahr in the southern province of Fars and Borujen in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and...

TEHRAN, IRAN - The Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) reported that Iran and the 27 European Union member states traded over US$5 billion (€4.7 billion) worth of goods in 2023. Trade between Iran and the member states of the European Union recorded a decrease of 9 percent from...

Tehran, Iran - Iran unveiled two new air defense systems on Saturday, state media reported, with tensions high in the Middle East amid the war in Gaza. "The Arman anti-ballistic missile system and the Azarakhsh low-altitude air defense system, built by the ministry of defense, were unveiled this morning," the official...

Tehran, Iran – Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan on Thursday said that Iran and Armenia have the potential to increase the volume of their bilateral trade to $3 billion. Grigoryan made the remarks during the 18th meeting of the Iran-Armenia Joint Economic Commission where he also described Iran...

The saboteurs hit pipelines in the cities of Borujen in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Safashahr in the southern province of Fars, Aghli said, adding that there were no casualties in the explosions or the ensuing fires.

Doha, Qatar-- Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has affirmed that the ties between Qatar and Iran have never been closer. The emir stated this in a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Doha. During the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian conveyed the greetings of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday it has launched long-range ballistic missiles from a warship for the first time. The launch from the Shahid Mahdavi during naval maneuvers involved firing two ballistic missiles capable of striking targets up to 1,700 kilometerees (1,050 miles) away. "The...

World Bank President Ajay Banga said that "what's going on Gaza, but also the challenges of Ukraine... and the Red Sea" are among the top challenges to the global economic outlook. "When you add variables to what is turning out to be probably the lowest growth of the last 55...

Amir-Abdollahian met top officials in Beirut including Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful ally of the group. He also met Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, and deputy chief of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mazhar,...

A total of 17 Houthi fighters were killed in US strikes, the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group said through its official media. "The bodies of a number of martyrs of the nation as a result of the bombing of the American-British aggression were carried through Sanaa in a solemn funeral procession,"...

Beirut, Lebanon - Israeli air strikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near the Syrian capital killed three people early on Saturday, a war monitor said. State media reported that Syrian air defenses responded to an Israeli "air attack". Since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has...

Doha, Qatar - An Asian Cup full of late goals and surprises reaches a climax on Saturday when hosts and holders Qatar face a Jordan side looking to make yet more history. The 88,000-capacity Lusail Stadium, where Lionel Messi's Argentina beat France in the World Cup final 14 months ago, will...

"The presence of US forces in our region has no justification," Raisi said in a Tehran ceremony ahead of the 45th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution on February 12.

"Ten people, including six civilians and two Hizbollah fighters, were killed in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighborhood of Homs," the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. The strikes completely levelled the building in one of the city's most affluent...

Common beliefs associated with gemstones are largely what motivates people to buy them, said Hassan Samimi, a lapidary at the market near the shrine of Shah Abdolazim. Iran subsequently declared the ring "cultural heritage" and a "national asset", Samimi says demand for gemstones has remained relatively steady despite Iran's severe...

TEHRAN, IRAN – The country has exported more than 6.7 million tons of agricultural and food products worth US$4.8 billion during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 – January 20, 2024), an Iranian economic official said. Rouhollah Latifi, the spokesman of the Iranian House...

Moscow, Russia -- China, India, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia will become prior countries for Russia in development of inbound tourism in 2024, according to the concept for promoting Russia’s tourism potential on foreign markets presented by Director General of the Center for Strategic Research Pavel...

Tehran, Iran -- Iran said Monday it had started building a new nuclear research reactor in Isfahan, days after it announced it was constructing a nuclear power plant complex in the south. "Today, the process of pouring concrete for the foundation of the reactor started at the Isfahan site," said Mohammad...

The US secretary of state is expected to discuss a proposed truce hammered out in a Paris meeting in January of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. The diplomatic push has become more urgent with the surge in attacks by Iran-backed groups in solidarity with Hamas, triggering counterattacks by...

Saturday's strikes hit "36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis' continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea", the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.

Scaling up attacks in the Middle East, US and UK carried out joint air raids in Yemen after a separate wave of US strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan. It is the third time the western...

Washington, US - American forces shot down eight drones near Yemen and destroyed four more on the ground, the US military said on Saturday, announcing a series of incidents that took place the previous day. The strikes and shootdowns in and around Yemen came as American forces launched a wave of air...

The strikes hit "locations in the Akashat and Al-Qaim regions, including areas where our security forces are stationed", Awadi said. The United States carried out the strikes on Friday in retaliation for the killing of three US military personnel in a drone attack on a base close to Jordan's border...

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on all parties to avoid further escalation in the Middle East after US strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria and Iraq. "Everybody should try to avoid that the situation becomes explosive," Borrell said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

"The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond," US president Joe Biden said.

"Any (US) strike will result in an appropriate response," Al-Nujaba leader Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement, adding the group would continue its actions until its demands are met for US troops to leave Iraq and an end to Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza.

The targets included a site operated by Lebanese group Hezbollah on a road leading to the Sayyida Zeinab district and a site on the road to Damascus airport that had recently been vacated by pro-Iran groups, the Britain-based war monitor said.

"Container shipping... has declined by almost 30 percent," said Jihad Azour, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department, adding that "the drop in trade accelerated in the beginning of this year."

Tehran, Iran - Iran and Turkey are set to enhance their electricity exchange capabilities through the implementation of modern technology, according to Mehdi Moghimzadeh, the head of Iran's Iran Grid Management Company. “With the signing of the contract for the operation of 400-kilovolt BtB HVDC line between Khoy (Iran) and...

Doha, Qatar - Iran are "following our dreams" in trying to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 48 years, winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh said on the eve of Wednesday's last-16 clash with Syria. Three-time champions Iran face Syria in Qatar with a quarter-final against Bahrain or pre-tournament favorites Japan...

Tehran carried out strikes against an anti-Iran group in Pakistan on January 16, the same week the nation's military targeted Iraq and Syria. Two days later, Pakistan responded in kind with a pre-dawn raid on "militant targets" in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim regions in...

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that "radical Iran-backed fighters groups operating in Syria and Iraq" were behind the strike on the frontier base in Jordan's northeast. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reiterated a call for Iran "to de-escalate in the region".

The four defendants, identified as Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Wafa Azarbar, Pejman Fatehi, were arrested in July 2022 and accused of plotting to carry out an operation in Isfahan. "The death sentence of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organization was carried out this morning," Mizan Online reported.

Tehran, Iran--Iran and Turkey will join hands to set up a free trade zone at the border crossing in Khoy city. Head of the Iranian-Turkish parliamentary friendship group in the Iranian shura council Adel Najafzadeh said during the recent visit of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Turkey, Raisi and...

Western governments including the United States have repeatedly warned Iran against such launches, saying the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead. Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for...

US forces struck an anti-ship missile in Houthi-held Yemen that they said was ready to fire, hours after the Iran-backed rebels caused a fire on a British tanker in the Gulf of Aden. US and British forces have launched joint strikes aimed at reducing the Houthis' ability to target vessels...

Tehran, Iran - Gunmen in southeastern Iran near the Pakistan border killed nine foreign nationals on Saturday, Iranian media reported, more than a week after the neighbors exchanged deadly cross-border fire. "According to witnesses, this morning unknown armed men killed nine non-Iranians in a house in the Sirkan neighborhood of Saravan...

Ankara, Turkiye – Iran and Turkiye signed contract to connect their power grids during the visit of Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi to Turkiye. The Khoy-Van grid line is set to become operational as part of the agreement between the Iran Grid Management Company and the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS).,...