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 launched hundreds...

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 stage...

"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 of...

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 Eslami,...

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 raids...

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 up...

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 his...

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 city"...

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 F...

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 rebel-held...

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 the...

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, claiming...

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...