Iran-US tensions

Commuters make their way past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026.

Two Iranians face US court in sanctions, arms trafficking cases: What to know

The cases come as the United States pairs tighter sanctions with stepped-up enforcement targeting Iran’s global networks amid the war.

US Vice President JD Vance (C) walks with Pakistan's Chief of Defense Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir (L), and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials on April 11, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Trump says Iran deal could happen 'quickly' as Pakistan readies talks: What to know

A source familiar with the plans told Al-Monitor that the US delegation will travel to Islamabad soon.

Haruna Furuhashi /Getty Images

Could UAE tap US currency swap line as Iran war strains Gulf economies?

The Gulf country apparently wanted reassurances from Washington in case its economy is severely damaged by the Iran war.

United Arab Emirates

Vehicles move on a road in Bahrain's capital, Manama, on March 11, 2026.

Bahrain orders citizenship review as Iran war-linked crackdown escalates: What to know

The move comes as Bahrain steps up arrests and tightens security measures amid the war, with authorities targeting alleged Iran-linked dissenters and considering additional citizenship revocations.

Latest News

Oil rises, Gulf stocks slide after Iran ship seizure throws truce into doubt

A man walks past a screen displaying stock indices at the Dubai Financial Market stock exchange in Dubai, March 4, 2026.

Lebanon-Israel negotiations to continue even as Iran talks stall

Jewel SAMAD / AFP via Getty Images

Interview

UAE official says opening Hormuz integral to any Iran deal, describes infrastructure damage 'manageable'

Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, United Arab Emirates

Analysis

What is Iran really willing to concede on its nuclear program?

Iranians drive next to a billboard displaying pictures of nuclear scientists, centrifuges and a sentence reading in Farsi "Science is the power," at Enqelab Square in Tehran, on Aug. 29, 2025.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Iranians enjoy a walk in a park during snowfall in the capital Tehran on Jan. 15, 2023.

Gas-rich Iran apologizes to citizens over chaotic shortages

Despite sitting on the world's second-largest gas reserves, Iran has in recent days witnessed the chaotic management of its household gas heating, which is adding further to a host of unaddressed public grievances.

Yoon Suk-yeol

South Korea-UAE visit showcases alignment on arms, energy deals

A $30 billion pledge from the UAE to invest in South Korean industries was one outcome of the four-day visit

By Salim A. Essaid

Iran labor

Suicide rates on rise in Iran as economic conditions grow more dire

Amid a rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Iran, news reports says that some workers are taking their own lives due to poverty.

ANDERS WIKLUND/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

Iran releases taped 'confessions' by dual British citizen sentenced to death

Iran's state media outlets have released a video of Alireza Akbari allegedly confessing to his crimes a day after his death sentence was upheld by the country's Supreme Court.

MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images

Western allies join US' experimental drone task force in Middle East

Task Force 59 is now fully operationally capable, Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told an audience of Navy personnel in Washington on Tuesday.

A picture taken during a guided tour by the US Navy shows a US Navy patrol boat that took journalists on board at an Emirati naval facility near the port of the Gulf emirate of Fujairah to show them an oil tanker that was attacked last week in the Gulf of Oman, June 19, 2019.

Breaking | Last Updated: January 10, 2023, 9:54 am

US Navy seizes load of rifles smuggled from Iran to Yemen

Navy officials say the sea drones deployed by the Fifth Fleet's experimental Task Force 59 are contributing to their ability to monitor Middle Eastern waterways, but won't credit the units with enabling any specific seizures just yet.

Policemen gather with images of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a protest against defamatory cartoons depicting him published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, outside the French embassy in Iran's capital Tehran on January 8, 2023. (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

'Death to Khamenei' slogan to be allowed on Facebook, Meta says

Meta’s decision came amid ongoing anti-government protests in Iran, and contrasts with its ruling on calls for Russian president Putin’s death.

Men ride scooters past a billboard depicting (L to R) the late commander of the Popular Mobilization Units Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, Baghdad, Iraq, June 13, 2021.

Iraqi PM condemns former US administration for killing Soleimani

At a ceremony marking the anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the former US administration for carrying out the strikes.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Iraq judicial chief highlights arrest warrant for Trump over Soleimani killing

The 2020 US airstrike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad continues to be a sore point between the US and Iraqi governments.

A picture shows a newspaper stall with a view of Etemad newspaper's front page bearing a title reading in Farsi "The night of the end of the JCPOA ", and cover photos of Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian his deputy and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, in the capital Tehran on August 16, 2022. - The European Union and United States said they were studying Iran's response to a "final" draft agreement on reviving a 2015 nuclear accord with major powers the EU presented at talks in Vien

Analysis

Iran deal becomes latest casualty of Russia's war in Ukraine

US, European and Iranian diplomats explain how the negotiations on a return to the Iran nuclear deal have been eclipsed by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Lt. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, Feb. 8, 2022.

Analysis

US top Middle East commander tests new model of deterring Iran

As the Pentagon shifts focus to China and Russia, CENTCOM’s chief is banking on experimentation with unmanned surveillance and artificial intelligence to offset a smaller US footprint in the Middle East.

Jared Szuba

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) paramilitaries supporters raise pictures depicting their late slain commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the slain top commander of the Iranian revolutionary guard corps (IRGC) Qasem Soleimani with whom he was killed in a US air strike, as they gather in Iraq's central holy shrine city of Karbala on September 16, 2022. (Photo by MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images)

UK relations with Iran take nosedive ahead of IRGC designation

The designation will put the IRGC in a similar legal category as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the eyes of the UK government, outlawing membership in, financial dealings with and encouraging support for the paramilitary organization.

AL-MONITOR Staff

By AL-MONITOR Staff