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Iran

September 11, 2026

Tehran 11:28 am

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Pedestrians walk past a wall mural along a street in downtown of Tehran on Aug. 31, 2026.

Analysis

Could Iran’s nuclear ambitions harden as war escalates?

A new report has raised alarm about the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site that President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Richard Marles at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on September 2, 2026. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Iran’s Pickaxe mountain tests limits of Trump’s military options

A secretive Pentagon innovation agency has hastened to test munitions that may penetrate deeper than the GBU-57 bombs dropped on Iran’s two main enrichment facilities.

Jared Szuba

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

Elke Scholiers/Getty Images

Iran's IRGC set to declare new ‘sanctions zone’ beyond Hormuz: What to know

The latest Iranian effort to assert control over waterways in the region follows heavy US strikes targeting oil tankers.

AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images

Brent crude sails past $100 as Middle East war intensifies

The Iran war escalated this week as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked four southern Saudi Arabian cities and oil facilities.

Latest News

US strikes Iranian tankers after attempted attack on Navy ship

Vessels transit the Hormuz Strait off the coast of Iran's southern port city of Bandar Abbas on September 7, 2026. Iran's top negotiator threatened on September 6 of a more forceful response to any further US attacks after Tehran targeted American warships in their latest round of clashes. The exchanges of fire, which began with US raids last week, come amid a deadlock in the six-month war between the two foes. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images) /

Analysis

What Houthi setbacks in Yemen mean for Iran's regional influence

Forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Analysis

Israel braces for Iran attack as Trump’s economic squeeze on Tehran intensifies

TOPSHOT - Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system are pictured over Tel Aviv on February 28, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, with Israel's public broadcaster reporting that the Iranian supreme leader had been targeted, as the Islamic republic retaliated with barrages of missiles at Gulf states and Israel. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

US hits 27 Iranian airlines with latest sanctions

A picture take on September 14, 2017 shows an Airbus A340 of Mahan Air at the tarmac at Dubai's International Airport. (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Benjamin Houghton

In Durham, reporting on China in the Middle East

Rahim Rahimov

In Baku, reporting on Middle East-Caucasus ties

Mehrnaz Samimi

In Washington, DC, reporting on Iranian culture

A picture taken on September 2, 2014 in the Iranian capital Tehran shows bronze statues displayed in the courtyard of the "Qasr prison", a former prison hosting political prisoners that was turned into a museum in 2012. The building was built in 1790 at the time of Qajar king, Fath-ali Shah by the Russian architect Markov before it was converted into a prison in 1929. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran executes three political prisoners, upholds more death verdicts

Iran’s judiciary said death penalties against three political prisoners have been upheld while confirming that three other prisoners had been sent to the gallows.

Iran probes another blast at industrial complex

The explosion is the latest in a series of explosions at facilities across Iran.

Iranian officials defend deal with China

Iranian officials say they are still working out the details of the Iran-China agreement but defended the agreement on principle.

A Iranian man carries a portrait of slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, on the 40th day of his killing in a US drone strike, during commemorations marking 41 years since the Islamic Revolution, in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2020. - Thousands of Iranians massed for commemorations marking 41 years since the Islamic Revolution, in a show of unity at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. The celebrations mark the day that Shiite cleric Khomeini returned from exile and ousted the shah'

Intel: CENTCOM commander says Soleimani strike won’t deter Iran forever

The top commander of US military forces in the Middle East says he believes the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani has only temporarily deterred Iran from pursuing its goal of pushing US troops out of the region.

Iran government squeezed over ‘secretive’ deal with China

Pressure is mounting on the Iranian government to release specifics of a contentious, long-term partnership agreement with Beijing, which some critics fear could effectively turn Iran into a Chinese “colony.”

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi (R) and Ismail Haniya, Palestinian Hamas premier of Gaza, raise their hands upon the latter's arrival for a meeting in Tehran on February 10, 2012. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran offers unconditional support to Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Hamas is sparing no effort to restore its relations with Iran, which announced that it will provide all necessary support to the Palestinians facing the Israeli annexation plan of the West Bank.

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 13: Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

What would President Kanye West's Middle East policy be?

Rapper Kanye West has yet to develop a foreign policy platform for his announced presidential candidacy, but his past lyrics, tweets and travels may reveal some of his views.

Iranian lawmakers attend a session at the Iranian parliament in Tehran on May 28, 2020. - Iran's newly formed parliament elected the former Tehran mayor Mohamad Bagher Ghalibaf as its speaker, consolidating the power of conservatives ahead of next year's presidential election. State television said the 58-year-old received 230 votes out of the 267 cast to secure the post, one of the most influential positions in the Islamic republic. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Nine Iranian MPs test positive for coronavirus

Iran has continued to see a rise in coronavirus-related deaths as the virus spreads across provinces.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohmmad Javad Zarif (C) attends during the inaugural session of the new parliament in Tehran on May 27, 2020, following February elections. - The 11th legislature since the Islamic revolution of 1979 opened as the country's economy, which has been hard hit by the novel coronavirus, gradually returns to normal. Rouhani, who is in the final year of his second and final term, called on MPs, collectively and individually, to place the "national interest above special interests", "party

Iran’s Rouhani stands by foreign minister after parliament slurs

The fragility of the Iran nuclear deal and its bleak prospects have given Iran’s hard-liners the upper hand in their domestic battle against moderate forces.

Afghan boys play football at the Shahid Nasseri refugee camp in Taraz Nahid village near the city of Saveh, some 130 kms southwest of the capital Tehran, on February 8, 2015. Some 5000 Afghan refugees live at the camp which is run by the Iranian Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants' Affairs (BAFIA), the World Food Program (WFP) and UNHCR. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 950,000 registered Afghan residents in Iran -- some of whom have never even set foot

As Iran applauds BLM, Afghan minority short on rights

While the Iranian government points to the "Black Lives Matter" movement as proof of American hypocrisy, Iran's Afghan minority has a different take.

TOPSHOT - Mourners carry the coffins of slain Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and eight others inside the Shrine of Imam Hussein in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala,during a funeral procession on January 4, 2020. - Thousands of Iraqis chanting "Death to America" today as they mourned an Iranian commander and others killed in a US drone attack that sparked fears of a regional proxy war between Washington and Tehran. (Photo by Mohammed SAWAF / AFP) (Pho

UN expert calls US killing of Soleimani 'unlawful'

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions called the US strike an “arbitrary killing” that threatens to undermine norms of military conflict between countries.

A picture taken on March 12, 2017, shows a view of an oil facility in the Khark Island, on the shore of the Gulf. / AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran cuts oil production and storage is nearly full amid pandemic, US sanctions

Reuters reported that Iran's onshore storage facilities are nearly full while production is at its lowest point since the Iran-Iraq war.