US Defense Secretary Austin also visits Baghdad to assure US support for Iraqi security, stability, and sovereignty ahead of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion.

Scores of Iranian schools have been hit by poisonings since late November, with pupils suffering symptoms ranging from shortness of breath to nausea and vertigo after reporting "unpleasant" odors on school premises. Some have been treated in hospital.

Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said those behind the poisoning of schoolgirls in recent months should face "severe punishment", according to his website. In total, several hundred cases of gas poisoning have been reported in more than 52 schools across Iran since the end of November, according to an...

Tehran, Iran - She could have left Iran, as many of her contemporaries did, but Paris-trained pastry chef Shahrzad Shokouhivand decided to stay and work to make women's lives better inside the country.And the icing on the cake? She and her husband now employ 70 people - mostly women."It's only...

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi earlier said he had held "constructive" talks with Iranian officials in Tehran after the discovery of uranium particles enriched to near weapons-grade level. On his return to Vienna, Grossi recalled there had been "a reduction in monitoring activities related to cameras and monitoring systems"...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran has announced the discovery of a large deposit of lithium, a key component of batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices, state media reported Saturday."For the first time in Iran, a lithium reserve has been discovered in Hamedan", in the west of the country, state television quoted...

Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls across five provinces were hospitalized in a new wave of suspected poisoning attacks, local media reported. Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported over the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospitalization.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is expected in Tehran for discussions with officials after International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in Iran found uranium particles enriched to just under weapons-grade level. The visit by the head of IAEA comes with the Vienna-based organization seeking to get Iran to increase cooperation...

The IAEA report said that during an inspection "on 22 January 2023, the agency took environmental samples... at Fordow (sic) Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), the analytical results of which showed the presence of high enriched uranium particles containing up to 83.7 percent U-235". "These events clearly indicate the capability of...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Dozens of schoolgirls in Iran were hospitalized on Tuesday after a mysterious poisoning, an Iranian news agency reported, the latest in a spate of suspected attacks in the Islamic republic.Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among Iranian schoolgirls mainly in...

Washington, United States--Iran's nuclear program is advancing at a "worrisome pace," CIA director William Burns said in an interview broadcast Sunday, following reports Tehran had further enriched uranium.Iran was last known to have enriched uranium up to 60 percent purity, but a recent Bloomberg News report that International Atomic Energy Agency...

Madrid, Spain - Iran has released a Spanish woman who had been detained in the country since November, Spain's foreign minister said Sunday."She was freed yesterday, but we didn't want to announce it publicly before her plane had taken off from Iran," Jose Manuel Albares told journalists."I was able to speak...

Three years after former US president Donald Trump ordered the killing of top Guards' commander Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian genera has warned that his country is still seeking to kill Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo in revenge for assassinating the commander. Tehran has repeatedly vowed to avenge...

A more than eight-year-long war between Saudi-backed government forces and pro-Iran Houthi rebels has devastated Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula. The war has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths both directly and indirectly, and pushed the nation to the brink of famine.

Taking retaliatory action for imposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Iran has slapped 36 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain with sanctions. According to the Iranian foreign ministry, Tehran has placed the names on its "sanctions list for supporting terrorism and terrorist groups" as well as...

TEHRAN, IRAN - A Tehran court Tuesday sentenced to death an Iranian-German dual national accused of being the leader of a "terrorist" group behind a deadly 2008 mosque bombing, the judiciary said."The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Jamshid Sharmahd, the leader of the Tondar terrorist group, to death on the charge...

Iran denied reports it has enriched uranium up to 84 percent, just below the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb, state media reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was in discussions with Tehran after Bloomberg News reported that IAEA's inspectors in Iran found uranium enriched to...

Iran was last known to enrich up to 60 percent, while a 90-percent threshold is required for use in a weapon. Bloomberg News reported that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Iran last week found uranium enriched to 84-percent purity. Tehran says it is not planning to...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia--The African Union said Sunday that Israel's observer status at the bloc was suspended and therefore it had not been invited to its weekend summit, after a row over the ejection of one of its top diplomats.A furious Israel accused arch-foe Iran of orchestrating the expulsion of the...

Tehran, Iran--Iran's judiciary is prosecuting a woman for "disrespecting" the Islamic headscarf after she threw hers to the ground during a public meeting, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday.The requirement for women to wear the headscarf in public, enshrined in law since shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979, has triggered...

In yet another missile strike by Israel on Damascus, 15 people were killed and a residential building was destroyed in the Syrian capital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike, which hit close to an Iranian cultural center, had killed 15 people including civilians. Israel has targeted Syria...

LONDON, UK - The independent network Iran International TV said Saturday it had been forced on UK police advice to shut down its London studios, after a "significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran"."I cannot believe it has come to this," said the network's general manager, Mahmood Enayat, adding that 24-hour...

Israel condemned the "severe" expulsion of a senior diplomat from the African Union summit, accusing Iran of orchestrating the move with help from Algeria and South Africa. A video on social media shows guards escorting the Israeli foreign ministry's deputy director general for Africa, Sharon Bar-li, out of the AU...

The meeting was co-chaired by Sheikh Ahmed bin Hashel Al-Maskari, Head of the Omani Foreign Ministry's GCC Department.

Raisi is expected to hold private talks with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in the capital Beijing, with the pair expected to sign a number of "cooperation documents". The two met for the first time last September in Uzbekistan at a summit for the SCO, where the Iranian president...

On his upcoming trip, Raisi is expected to hold private talks with Xi, and delegations from both countries are due to sign "cooperation documents", according to Iranian media agency.

Last week, Iran claimed Israel launched a drone strike on a military plant in the central city of Isfahan.

The European Union has mobilized 10 search and rescue teams for Turkey after the stricken country requested EU assistance, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said.

TEHRAN, IRAN - One of Iran's main opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has called for the "fundamental transformation" of a political system he said was facing a crisis of legitimacy amid protests triggered by Mahsa Amini's death."Iran and Iranians need and are ready for a fundamental transformation whose outline is drawn...

Tehran, Iran - Iranian authorities have detained a journalist at a reformist publication, local media reported Sunday, as her sister, also a journalist, remains in custody after reporting on Mahsa Amini's death.Iran has been gripped by nationwide protests since the September 16 death in custody of Amini, a 22-year-old ethnic...

The Iranian criticism of Grossi comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general said he plans to visit Tehran in February for talks on getting it to increase cooperation over its activities, amid stalled negotiations to revive a landmark deal over Iran's nuclear program.

Washington, United States--The United States issued a joint statement with France, the United Kingdom and Germany on Friday criticizing Iran's "inadequate" response to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on its nuclear program.The UN nuclear watchdog issued a warning to Tehran on Wednesday after it found that changes had been...

France agrees that "firmness" is needed in dealings with Iran, a diplomatic source told earlier, saying the nuclear program had reached "a dangerous point" and highlighting Tehran's role in the Ukraine war. Siding with Ukraine is not without risk for Netanyahu, as Russian air defences deployed in neighbouring Syria could...

Baghdad is currently heavily dependent on neighboring Iran for its electricity and gas and has sought to diversify its energy sources.

Israeli PM's remarks come after a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called for calm following a flare-up of violence between Israel and the Palestinians and also nudged Israel to boost support to Ukraine.

Linking of banking system with Russia is seen as an attempt by both the countries to get around the US economic sanctions.

A convoy of trucks driving into eastern Syria from Iraq on Sunday was hit by air strikes, destroying all the vehicles, according to a war monitor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that six refrigerated trucks were the target of strikes by unidentified aircraft in the Albu Kamal border...

Iran's deadliest recorded quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the country's north, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless.

Claiming that it has repelled a drone attack on a military site, Iran's defense ministry said that an unsuccessful attack was carried out by armed drones on one of the workshop complexes in central Isfahan province. The strike on the military site occurred late Saturday night and caused only minor...

Baghdad, Iraq - Iraq's Minister of Electricity, Ziyad Ali Fadel said the national grid has lost 7,500 megawatts in the past days due to curtailed Iranian gas imports which led to a decline in processing hours.He said the memorandum of understanding signed with the German company Siemens will lead to...

Zarghami said he advised a "man who behaves harshly" towards a woman not wearing headscarf to "close his eyes if looking at her excites him". Zarghami was strongly criticised by ultra-conservatives in October after reportedly criticising the morality police.

Brussels, Belgium--The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he plans to go to Iran next month for "much needed" talks on getting it to resume cooperation over its nuclear activities."I might be back in Tehran... in February, perhaps, for a much needed political dialogue, or reestablishment thereof, with Iran,"...

The EU and Britain on Monday slapped another round of sanctions on Iran which has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict dress code for women. "The move by the European Union...

The EU has already imposed sanctions on more than 60 Iranian officials and entities over the crackdown on protestors, including the "morality police", Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and state media. But the 27-nation bloc has so far stopped short of blacklisting the Revolutionary Guards themselves as a terror group despite...

Iranian authorities have arrested three female journalists in the past two days, local media said, amid protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. Iran has been gripped by protests since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict...

"Joonam," a documentary about a three-generation family of Iranian women now living in Vermont, and "The Persian Version," a colorful but candid dramedy which hops between Iran and New York over several decades, received world premieres on Saturday. "Shayda," a drama directed by Noora Niasari about a Persian woman who...

Iran's economy has been subject to increasing pressure with fresh sanctions imposed by Western countries over the authorities response to protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

PARIS, FRANCE - Thirty women political prisoners in Iran, including a Franco-Iranian academic and the daughter of a former president, on Sunday demanded an end to the executions of protesters in the country."We, the political and ideological prisoners in the women's ward of Evin Prison, demand an end to the execution...

Members of the European Parliament voted on Wednesday to include the Guards on the 27-nation bloc's terror list in "light of its terrorist activity, the repression of protesters and its supplying of drones to Russia". The vote is non-binding but comes with EU foreign ministers already due to discuss tightening...

The EU will impose new sanctions on 37 Iranian officials and organizations over the crackdown on protests, but is still debating listing the Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist" group, diplomats said. Foreign ministers from the bloc are to agree to adopt the fourth package of sanctions on Tehran over its...