The last seven days in pictures

Lebanon’s Hezbollah capabilities have doubled more than 100 times, the head of the defence office for Iran’s Fikr Al-Islam movement, Abbas-Ali Farzandi, said yesterday. Speaking at a ceremony held...

Israel’s Shin Bet security service suspects Iran of hacking the mobile phone of Benny Gantz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s toughest rival in the April 9 election, an Israeli television...

Iran did not attend the 14th session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) conference taking place in Rabat, Morocco, Anadolu Agency reported....

Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami yesterday warned that his country will respond “firmly” if the Israeli navy targeted Iranian oil shipments. “Iran has the military capabilities to counter any...

The Syrian army, aided by Russian warplanes, attacked rebel-held towns in northwestern Syria on Wednesday in the most extensive bombardment in months against the last remaining rebel bastion in...

The Republican-led US Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution seeking to end US support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the war in Yemen, in a rebuke of President...

The United States aims to cut Iran’s crude exports by about 20 percent to below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from May by requiring importing countries to reduce...

Brazilian right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro will visit Israel at the end of the month but he may not be able to deliver on a promise to move Brazil’s embassy...

Israel has imposed itself through successive wars and military victories since the 1948 war. Israel has also exploited American support which is committed to making it militarily superior to...

Iraq’s top Shia cleric told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday that Iraqi sovereignty must be respected and weapons kept in state hands, a veiled reference to increasingly influential...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday reirerated his calls for dialogue with Saudi Arabia, stressing that the Middle East does not need “strong countries” or “strong men” but...

The Omani foreign ministry yesterday announced that it had assisted negotiate the release of an Indonesian and a Malaysian held by Houthis in Yemen. “The Sultanate had reached an...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday congratulated Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, on receiving the Order of Zulfiqar medal of...

Water shortages are one of the biggest challenges facing Iran at the moment, Iran’s women’s minister said yesterday. Speaking at a water conference held in the city of Mashhad,...

Morocco called on Monday the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states to “leave the differences apart and work on resolving and overcoming them through dialogue.” This came during the...

Nasrin Sotoudeh, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer jailed in Iran, was handed a new sentence on Monday which her husband said was 38 years in prison and 148...

Iraq and Iran signed several preliminary trade deals on Monday, Iraqi officials said, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began his first visit seeking to bolster Tehran’s influence and expand...

The latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on global arms sales, released on 11 March, is a sobering acknowledgement that the Middle East and, in...

This week is the eighth anniversary of the conflict in Syria. The death toll is well over half a million and over half the population has been internally or...

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif yesterday denied resigning as a result of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s trip to Tehran last month, Arabi21 reported. Zarif told an Iraqi television station that...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Baghdad today on a three-day visit to Iraq for talks with Iraqi officials. Leading a high-profile delegation, Rouhani was welcomed at Baghdad International...

President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Iraq this week is a strong message to the United States and its regional allies that Iran still dominates Baghdad, a key arena for...

Iran’s oil ministry said on Sunday that it had been receiving revenues from selling oil despite difficulties caused by US sanctions, denying allegations made by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday called for “decisive” action by Pakistan against a militant group behind a deadly suicide attack in a border area, and said inaction by...

Germany will not follow Britain’s lead in declaring Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday, a decision that may fuel tensions with...

Saudi Arabia’s air defence systems shot down a drone over the kingdom today, the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said, and it accused the country’s Houthi fighters of launching...

Oil prices increased on Thursday amid OPEC-led supply cuts and the US sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, the two main petroleum exporting countries. However, price gains were limited due...

Britain will hand diplomatic protection to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to underline the government’s belief that Iran has behaved unjustly in its treatment of her, foreign minister Jeremy...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States is holding negotiations to try to win the release of US hostages held abroad, but he declined to say...

The United States has sanctioned Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba, a radical Muslim militia group of about 10,0000 fighters, as well as its leader Akram Kaabi, the Treasury Department said...

An Iranian construction official recently announced that Iran has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian government to build “200,000 housing units” in Damascus. The agreement was made...