Iranian leadership vows strong retaliation if Israel attacks Iran as Hezbollah kills eight Israeli soldiers and destroys 3 tanks while Israel banned UN chief Antonio Guterres from entering Israel. Also, 90 people were killed in Gaza and dozens injured in fresh Israeli attacks.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," said Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a statement. "This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers," he said.

Rome, Italy -- The G7 on Wednesday vowed to work together to reduce tensions in the Middle East and said a diplomatic solution to prevent widening conflict "is still possible". Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni -- whose country holds the G7 presidency this year -- called a telephone meeting of the...

Iran launched around 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to the killings of Tehran-backed militant leaders, prompting alarm across the region and vows of retaliation.

Iran has launched a missile attack on Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv, state media reported Tuesday. The official IRNA news agency said Iran had launched "a missile attack on Tel Aviv", without elaborating.

Iran is preparing an imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel, the United States said on Tuesday, warning that any such assault would have "severe" consequences for Tehran.

An Israeli strike on Beirut Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that has been armed and financed by the Islamic republic for years."We have not received any request in this regard from any side, on the contrary, we are informed and are sure that...

Israeli forces have launched limited incursions in Lebanon, the United States said on Monday, while Lebanon's national army, dwarfed by Hezbollah's military power, was "repositioning" troops farther from the border, said a military official.

While Israeli defense minister indicates imminent ground invasion of Lebanon speaking to his country's troops, Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses Iranian people through a video saying that change will "come a lot sooner than people think"

Israeli fighter jets pounded parts of Lebanon and a drone attacked a Sunni neighborhood in central Beirut killing dozens across Lebanon and injuring more than 500 people. Saudi Arabia expresses "great concern".

Israel has been planning for months to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in south Beirut. Reports say Israeli PM approved the killing from his New York hotel while he was visiting UN annual meetings.

The World Food Program says it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals for one million people affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon, calling on the international community to mobilize US$105 million to fund the operation.

Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah enjoyed cult status among his supporters and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.

The demonstrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities were responding to a call by authorities on Wednesday to demonstrate in support of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon "and to condemn the barbaric crimes of the Zionist regime in Palestine," the official IRNA news agency said.

The strikes were by far the largest in scale. Iran embassy in Lebanon warns that the strikes 'change the rules of the game'.

"There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.

Washington, United States- The US State Department announced a $20 million reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton. US officials said in August 2022 that they had uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi,...

Escalating clashes between Israel and Hezbollah threatened to overshadow US President Joe Biden's final appearance at the UN's signature annual event on Tuesday as diplomats scrambled to avert an all-out regional war.

US President Joe Biden's top priorities for the past 11 months has been to prevent the Gaza war from spiraling into an all-out regional conflict. With the unstoppable Netanyahu, the haughty has beaten the mighty - black and blue.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of seeking regional war, as he attempted to cast Tehran as restrained and appealed to the West, including the United States, for talks on flashpoint issues.

Lebanon's health ministry said more than 700 were injured on Monday in the worst toll by far in nearly a year of cross-border clashes with Israel, while Iran warned Israel of "dangerous consequences". The United Nations has also expressed concerns about Israeli escalation against Lebanon.

Iranian authorities have announced the arrest of 12 people accused of "collaborating" with the country's arch-foe Israel, local media reported on Sunday. Meanwhile, Iran has enhanced efforts to build relations with its Arab neighbors by holding talks with Arab leaders at the United Nations.

A blast caused by a gas leak at an Iranian coal mine has killed at least 51 people, state media said Sunday, in one of the country's deadliest work accidents in years. "The number of dead workers increased to 51" in the explosion at the Tabas mine in eastern Iran,...

Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon in unprecedented attacks this week, killing 37 people and wounding more than 2,900. The blasts spanning two days have dealt a major blow to the Iran-backed resistance group

Lebanon's health minister said nine people were killed and some 2,800 wounded Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across the country. The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.

Tehran, Iran -- Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian will visit neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, state media reported Sunday, in what will be his first trip abroad since he took office in July. Pezeshkian will head a high-ranking Iranians delegation to Baghdad to meet senior Iraqi officials. The visit comes at the invitation...

"After the follow-ups and consultations conducted by the president and with his written order, I will continue to exercise my duties as Strategic Vice President," Zarif said in a post on X. Zarif -- who attended on Tuesday the new cabinet's first meeting with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...

Iran's army in May similarly said it had found no evidence of criminal activity in the crash that also killed Raisi's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. "The case of the crash of Ayatollah Raisi's helicopter has been fully completed by the regulatory and security institutions," Fars reported.

The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed the Trump campaign claim from earlier this month that it had been targeted, potentially by Iran.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told several Middle Eastern counterparts in recent days that "this ceasefire deal is of vital importance, that we need to do everything we can to get it done, and that escalation is in no one's interest", State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Wednesday.

With tensions soaring in the Middle East, the United States says that Iran along with its proxies might attack Israel as early as this week. The world leaders are trying to persuade Iran and Israel to avoid war, but Iran says it has a right to defend itself just like...

Iran blames Haniyeh's death on Israel and has vowed to avenge him, while Hamas's Lebanese ally Hizbollah has also pledged to retaliate for his killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the attack, the White House said. "They discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing," it said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 nations that any attack could happen within 24 to 48 hours, as early as Monday

The political head of Palestinian group Hamas was killed early on Wednesday in Tehran, where he had attended the inauguration of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran and the Hamas, which Tehran supports, vowed to retaliate and blamed the strike on Israel, which has declined to comment.

Israel on Saturday again traded fire with Hezbollah, carried out a deadly raid in the occupied West Bank, and struck a school compound in Gaza City in an attack that the Hamas-ruled territory's civil defence agency said killed at least 17 people.

Haniyeh was laid to rest in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, following funeral prayers at the Gulf emirate's largest mosque attended by thousands of people. he burial was restricted to a small number of people including one of Haniyeh's daughters, Sara, who shared a video on social media showing her...

Biden, who was joined on the call by Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, also emphasized the "ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region," the White House said in a statement. The call between the leaders also came after Israel announced it had "eliminated Hezbollah military...

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, addressing the funeral of the Lebanese group's top military commander, said Israel and "those who are behind it must await our inevitable response" to Fuad Shukr's and Haniyeh's killings within hours of each other. "You do not know what red lines you crossed," Nasrallah said, addressing...

Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran's political affairs, said after Haniyeh's death that it was "our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic republic of Iran". The Hamas leader was in Tehran for the inauguration ceremony of newly...

The meeting has been requested by Iran and supported by representatives of Russia, China and Algeria, said a spokesman for the Russian presidency, which holds the rotating leadership of the council. Separately, UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced the attacks on Tehran as well as Beirut as a "dangerous escalation".

"The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred," said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Sepah news website.

In a message read by the director of Khamenei's office, he said: "I endorse the vote (for) the wise, honest, popular and scholarly Mr Pezeshkian, and I am appointing him as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran". The new reformist president is due to be sworn in before...

In the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, Pezeshkian gave a speech thanking his supporters, saying their votes have "given hope to a society plunged into an atmosphere of dissatisfaction". "I did not give false promises in this election," said Pezeshkian, flanked by former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel said Friday that "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week. The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman came after a delegation led by the...

Iran held the first round of its snap presidential election last week which was marked by a record low turnout. Only 40 percent of Iran's 61 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the first round -- the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

In a contest between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the election comes amid heightened regional tension

Tehran, Iran - Iranians voted in a presidential election on Friday marked by a lone reformist's bid to break through against a divided conservative field. Voting was extended three times and eventually ended at midnight (2030 GMT), with around 61 million Iranians eligible to cast ballots after the death of ultraconservative...

Polls in Iran opened on Friday for a presidential election following the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. Around 61 million Iranians are eligible to vote in the polls where reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, hopes for a breakthrough win against a divided conservative camp....

Iranians vote on Friday to elect a new president from six candidates, including a lone reformist who hopes he can challenge the dominance of conservatives in the Islamic republic. A presidential election had not been due until 2025 but was brought forward after ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter...