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).,...

The strict dress code for women has been the subject of heated debate since nationwide protests following the death in custody in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been arrested for allegedly breaching the dress code.

Doha, Qatar - Roberto Mancini said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia fear no team at the Asian Cup and will not try to duck out of a potential last-16 clash with South Korea. The Saudis have already qualified for the knockout rounds after two wins in Qatar and will top Group...

The US strikes come against an already explosive regional backdrop, fueled by the war in Gaza between Washington's ally Israel and the Iranian-backed Hamas. The US Central Command said the strikes targeted Ketaeb Hizbollah "headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV (drone) capabilities".

Planned talks in Ankara in early January were called off when twin blasts claimed by IS group jihadists killed 89 people at the shrine of assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qasem Soleimani. A trip he had planned for November was cancelled because of conflicting schedules of diplomats involved in...

Raisi will meet Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara, making a visit that was postponed twice -- once in November and once earlier this month -- because of spiraling tensions across the Middle East.

Abdelrahman Iyad, wounded in Gaza and now being treated aboard the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, docked in Egypt, said he did not have time to leave his house before it was hit. "I was with my parents, my brother, my sister, my second sister and her husband and their daughter....

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi vowed not to let the "cowardly assassination" go unanswered. Israel has been blamed for intensifying strikes targeting senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon -- backers of the Palestinian movement Hamas -- raising fears that fighting in the Gaza Strip could spread further.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched a research satellite, a minister said, putting it into a higher orbit in a milestone for its aerospace program that has faced Western criticism. The United States has warned Iran against such launches, saying the technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to...

"The Chinese side sincerely hopes that the two sides can exercise calm and restraint and avoid an escalation of tension," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference. "We are also willing to play a constructive role in de-escalating the situation if both sides so wish," she said.

Iran and Pakistan routinely blame each other for allowing militants to operate from the other's territory to launch attacks, but it is rare that official forces on either side engage. China, close partner of both countries, urged restraint, with foreign ministry spokeswoman saying both should "avoid actions that would lead...

The statement did not say where the strike took place, but various Pakistani social media accounts reported blasts in Balochistan province, where the two countries share a sparsely populated border of nearly 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).

WASHINGTON, US - British oil giant Shell has paused transit through the key Red Sea shipping route indefinitely, over fears of escalating tensions involving Yemen's Houthi rebels, according to a media report on Tuesday. The worries of escalation grew after United States and United Kingdom strikes on scores of sites in...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the "Zionist regime's spy headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq." The strike came "in response to the recent vicious actions of the Zionist regime which martyred the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the resistance front," a Guards statement carried by Iran's...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Iran wants to elevate the levels of trade and investment exchanges with Saudi Arabia to the highest volume in the region, Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alireza Enayati, said during his meeting Sunday with the President of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, Hassan bin Mujab Al-Huwaizi....

The IRGC also hit targets in Syria with ballistic missiles, including the "gathering places of commanders and main elements related to recent terrorist operations, particularly the Islamic State group", their Sepah News service reported. It added that the strike on Syria was in response to recent attacks by terrorist groups...

Tehran, Iran – Iran and India on Monday finalized an agreement for the development of the strategic Chabahar port in Tehran. The accord was reached in a meeting between Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. During the meeting, Bazrpash proposed...

Tehran, Iran - Iran urged on Monday the United States and Britain to "stop the war against Yemen" following their recent strikes on targets of the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels. US and British forces have hit scores of targets in Yemen after weeks of Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea,...

Loud cries went up for the Palestinian anthem before the game and the team's players put their arms around each other's shoulders. A brief moment's silence was held before kick-off, the quiet punctuated by cries of "free Palestine".

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting over the strikes carried out by the United States and Britain against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the chamber's presidency said. France, which holds the rotating presidency for the month of January, said the emergency meeting had been requested by Russia.

The announcement came hours after a British-navy maritime security agency said armed men boarded the Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged St Nikolas off Oman and changed course towards Bandar-e-Jask in Iran. Four or five "unauthorized boarders are reported to be wearing military-style black uniforms with black masks", the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations...

Berlin has loosened its stance on weapons exports to the kingdom recently, with the government praising Saudi Arabia's "constructive approach" in the Israel-Hamas war. Saudi Arabia had not renounced plans to normalize relations with Israel since the beginning of its war with Hamas, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock noted Sunday.

"We have repeatedly expressed our views to the authorities of the countries of the region, including Iraq, and declared that the presence of American forces in any form whatsoever... would not help to maintain stability and peace," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

On his fourth regional trip since the war began, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia after talks in Abu Dhabi. Blinken "emphasized the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict", during talks with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a US...

The European Union foreign policy chief warned against a regional conflict that would involve Lebanon, as border clashes intensified nearly three months into Israel's war with Hizbollah ally Hamas. “It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict," Josep Borrell said during a press conference in...

Beirut, Lebanon - Lebanon's Hizbollah fired on Saturday over 60 rockets at an Israeli military base, the group said, describing the barrage as a response to the killing of Hamas's deputy leader in Beirut. "As part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh al-Aruri......

TEHRAN, IRAN - A bombing attack in southern Iran claimed by the Islamic State group has killed 91 people, state media said on Saturday, raising an earlier toll after two victims had succumbed to wounds. The two blasts in Kerman on Wednesday hit crowds at a memorial ceremony near the tomb...

Sudani, whose government relies on support from Tehran-aligned parties, has repeatedly said in recent weeks he would like to see foreign troops leave Iraq. But the latest remarks came amid soaring regional tensions, with the repercussions of the Israel-Hamas war, raging for nearly three months, increasingly felt in Iraq and...

BEIRUT, LEBANON - The head of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group warned Israel on Friday that it will respond swiftly "on the battlefield" to the killing of Hamas's deputy leader in its south Beirut stronghold. "The response is inevitably coming. We cannot remain silent on a violation of this magnitude because it...

Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna agreed to seek steps to avoid a wider Middle East war following strikes in Lebanon and Iran, the State Department said on Thursday. In a telephone call the day before, the two top diplomats "discussed...

Baghdad, Iraq - A "US strike" in Baghdad on Thursday killed a military commander of the Hashed al-Shaabi, the ex-paramilitary force said, with an Iraq security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack. "A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of Hashed al-Shaabi," mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into...

Beirut, Lebanon - Four Hizbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura. The deaths, which according to a source close to the powerful group include a local Hizbollah leader, follow...

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday. The unclaimed attacks, which sparked fears of a widening conflict in...

At least 103 people were killed and another 140 injured when two blasts 10 minutes apart struck Iranian mourners commemorating slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his killing, Iran's state media reported. Iran's Tasnim news agency, quoting what it called informed sources, said "two bags...

Following record highs in 2023 for the likes of Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo, investors are predicting more gains as central banks prepare a series of interest-rate cuts as inflation cools. Oil prices rallied 2.5 percent on supply concerns after Iran dispatched a warship to the Red Sea in response to...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran's Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally important waterway. The agency did not give specific reasons for its deployment, but noted that Iranian military vessels had...

Tehran, Iran-- Trade between Iran and Azerbaijan has registered a 46 percent jump in 2022, according to the deputy prime minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Shahin Mustafayev, who is also the Azeri head of the Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Cooperation Commission, stated that the relations between the two countries are...

Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely" launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight...

Tehran, Iran - Iran's nuclear program remains peaceful, said Nasser Kanani, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Friday in response to a joint statement from the United States and three European countries. In a press release on Friday, Kanani suggested that these countries should reconsider their...

Iran hanged four people convicted of spying for arch foe Israel, the judiciary said, less than two weeks executing a man on similar grounds. "Four members of a sabotage group related to the Zionist regime (Israel)... were hanged this morning" in Iran's northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, the judiciary's Mizan...

Houthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas. The attacks are endangering a transit route that carries up to 12 percent of global trade, prompting the United States to set...

"My country, always at the request of the Iraqi authorities, will support the unity, sovereignty and stability of Iraq," said Sanchez during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani. Spain has deployed more than 300 soldiers as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition and NATO's mission in...

Israel again pounded Gaza with air strikes and shelling after its military chief warned the war raging with Hamas since the Palestinian group's October 7 attacks will last "many more months". A strike hit a house near Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, killing 22 people and wounding 34, the Gaza...

"It runs counter to the pursuit of enduring mutual interests in establishing security and stability, and it opposes the declared intention of the American side to enhance relations with Iraq," Baghdad said.

Razi Moussavi "was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus," Tehran's official IRNA news agency reported. The general was "active in the field of providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria," IRNA said, referring...

It was the first time the Pentagon has accused Iran of directly targeting ships since the start of Israel's war on the fighters group Hamas. The attack came amid a flurry of new drone and missile attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on the vital Red Sea shipping lane since the...

UN special envoy Hans Grundberg's announcement marks the latest step to end the nine-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. It follows recent meetings by Grundberg with head of Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential council and the chief negotiator of...