The Pentagon confirmed that the USS Gerald R. Ford is being moved from the Caribbean toward the Middle East, a voyage expected to take at least a week. The carrier will join the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group already operating in or near the region.

In interviews with Israeli media, Trump warned of consequences if negotiations fail. “Either we reach a deal or we'll have to do something very tough,” Israel's Channel 12 quoted him as saying.

Iran and the US resumed indirect nuclear talks on Monday in Muscat under Omani mediation, marking the first round of diplomacy in nearly eight months.

The discussions took place in Muscat, with the US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Iranian side headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has announced that he has instructed diplomats to pursue negotiations with the United States, signalling a possible easing of tensions after weeks of heightened military rhetoric and manoeuvres in the region.

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday likened recent anti-government protests to a "coup", warning that any US attack on the Islamic republic following Washington's military deployments in the Middle East would trigger a regional war.

Iran's top diplomat said Friday that his country's missile and defence capabilities would "never" be on the negotiating table, as US President Donald Trump appeared to cool on threats of a strike after a military build-up in the region.

Friday's visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi comes after US President Donald Trump threatened a military strike on Iran over its deadly protest crackdown this month and the lack of a nuclear agreement.

In his latest post on Truth Social, Trump did not mention the protests but said Iran needed to negotiate a deal over its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb.

A US naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier has deployed to Middle Eastern waters, the United States said Monday, as Tehran warned it was ready to hit back at any American attack launched in response to a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday held calls with the leaders of Israel and Iran, the Kremlin said, offering mediation amid protests in Iran that have raised fears of a military confrontation in the region.

Two diplomatic sources told AFP on Thursday that the security posture at Qatar's Al-Udeid Airbase had been lowered after a number of personnel had been told to leave on Wednesday over the regional tensions.

Iran on Wednesday vowed fast-track trials for people arrested over a massive wave of protests, after US President Donald Trump threatened "very strong action" if the Islamic republic goes ahead with hangings.

US President Donald Trump urged Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against the country's theocratic leadership, telling them "help is on its way" as international outrage grows over a crackdown rights groups say has left at least hundreds dead.

Widespread jamming of the Starlink satellite internet service used by some Iranian opposition members is a likely first in peacetime but impossible to sustain nationwide, experts told AFP.

Pezeshkian accused the United States and Israel of "trying to escalate this unrest with regard to the economic discussion and solutions we are working on".

A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels for military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted the Islamic republic would "not back down" in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two-week movement that has shaken the clerical authorities.

The leader of Yemen's separatists is heading to Riyadh on Tuesday for talks, a Yemeni official told AFP, after days of fighting between his UAE-backed forces and pro-Saudi rivals.

Iran has been rocked this week by protests that started in Tehran and have spread to other cities, with at least six people killed in clashes with security forces.

Israel's Mossad spy agency issued a direct call urging Iranians to press on with protests, saying it was supporting them "on the ground" as demonstrations spread in capital Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday seized an oil tanker in the Gulf carrying more than a dozen foreign crew members, state media reported.

Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most senior commander from the Iran-backed group to be killed by Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two sides.

"By destroying buildings... we will not be set back," said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a visit to the country's nuclear organization. Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran in June, kicking off a 12-day war that saw it target nuclear and military facilities

The announcement came in the wake of Russia saying it had tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable torpedo, as well as a new cruise missile. But Trump sparked confusion as well as concern, with no clarity on whether he was ordering testing of US nuclear-capable systems or actual test blasts.

Tehran, Iran -- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday proposed that Iran and its regional trading partners establish a shared currency to boost commerce amid crippling Western sanctions. Years of international sanctions, largely imposed by the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme, have severely weakened Iran's economy. The latest measures...

Iran declared one of the country's largest private banks bankrupt with its assets absorbed by the state, official media reported Saturday, in a rare move in the country grappling with international sanctions.

Iran said on Saturday that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its "commitment to diplomacy".

Iran's top diplomat said Sunday that cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog was no longer relevant following the reimposition of international sanctions on the Islamic republic.

US sanctions went into effect Monday on a major Indian port project in Iran, as President Donald Trump again showed his willingness to punish longstanding partner New Delhi in aid of his wider regional goals -- in this case to pressure Tehran.

Tehran, Iran -- As United Nations sanctions returned in full force on Sunday, Iranians felt the strain deepen, with prices soaring and the rial sinking to new lows. For Helia, a 33-year-old graphic designer in Tehran, the impact was already visible: the price tag on the furniture for her new...

The sanctions, three months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missiles program and are also expected to have wider effects on its troubled economy.

Sweeping UN sanctions loomed for Iran late Saturday for the first time in a decade, after last ditch nuclear talks with Western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.

China and Russia at a Security Council session on Friday put forward a draft resolution, seen by AFP, that would give another half year for talks, or until April 18, 2026.

Tehran, Iran -- Iran and Russia signed a $25 billion deal to build nuclear power plants in the Islamic republic, Iranian state media reported Friday, just hours ahead of the likely return of sweeping UN sanctions on Iran. "A deal for the construction of four nuclear power plants with a...

Trump voiced optimism about ending nearly two years of devastating war, echoing the confidence expressed a day earlier on the sidelines of the United Nations by his roving envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Britain, France and Germany are signatories to a 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) intended to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Kicking off Monday, Saudi Arabia and France will co-chair meetings on the future of the Israeli and Palestinian two-state solution, which aims to see both sides existing alongside.

Tehran, Iran - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that enriched nuclear material remained "under the rubble" of facilities damaged during the recent war with Israel. "All of our material is... under the rubble of the bombed facilities," said Araghchi in a televised interview, adding that Iran's Atomic Energy...

The agreement was signed in Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who hailed it as "an important step in the right direction".

Iran will accept limits on its nuclear programme and restrictions to uranium enrichment if international sanctions are lifted, its foreign minister said in a piece in The Guardian on Sunday.

Security chief Ali Larijani said Tuesday that Iran was open to nuclear talks with the United States but ruled out any restrictions on its missile programme.

The 10-member SCO said they also strongly condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran in June, in the statement issued after a summit of the 10 member states in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

Khanke, Iraq - Archaeologists in drought-hit Iraq have discovered 40 ancient tombs after water levels in the country's largest reservoir declined, an antiquities official said Saturday. The tombs, believed to be over 2,300 years old, were unearthed at the edges of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the Khanke region of...

Iran said Wednesday that the return of UN nuclear inspectors did not represent a full resumption of cooperation, which was suspended in the aftermath of June attacks by Israel and the United States.

The remarks, delivered at a mosque in the capital Tehran, come two months since fighting halted between Iran and its sworn enemy Israel in a war that the United States had briefly joined.

Iranian forces have killed six militants in a raid in the restive southeast, state media reported Saturday, saying they were members of a "terrorist" group linked to arch enemy Israel.

The move would reimpose sweeping UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 agreement unless Iran agrees to curb its uranium enrichment and restore cooperation with IAEA inspectors.

Syria's foreign minister met with an Israeli diplomatic delegation in Paris on Tuesday to discuss "de-escalation and non-interference in Syria’s internal affairs", state news agency SANA reported.

Tehran, Iran - The streets of Tehran have become a confusing maze for driver Farshad Fooladi amid widespread GPS disruption, still ongoing nearly two months after the end of Iran and Israel's unprecedented 12-day war. "For weeks I have been unable to work," said Fooladi, who uses Iran's homegrown ride-hailing...