Iran-US tensions

The Liberia-flagged container vessel MSC Tasman VI and the Singapore-flagged container vessel Wan Hai 353 are docked along a pier at the Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in Sharjah Emirate, along the Gulf of Oman on June 19, 2026.

Iran attacks cargo ship off Oman, testing Trump’s Hormuz Strait deal

The first Iranian attack on a cargo vessel since the ceasefire comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio huddled with Gulf Cooperation Council ministers in Manama to reject Iran's claims to control the Strait of Hormuz.

Jared Szuba

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

A worker at a market for fuel oil and automotive fuel on March 17, 2026, in Erbil, Iraq.

Explainer

After UAE and Qatar, could Iraq be next to leave OPEC?

Iraq is seeking a higher production quota as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has slashed oil revenues and plunged the country into a fiscal crisis.

Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (R) arrives at the Burgenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne on June 21, 2026.

Iran rejects Trump's claim frozen funds will buy US soybeans: What to know

Trump said Wednesday that the US would release “some” Iranian frozen funds and would use them to purchase corn, wheat and soybeans from American farmers.

Hamed Malekpour / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Iran’s IRGC warns against using 'highly dangerous' Hormuz route: What to know

Tehran is warning that Oman's temporary routes will not guarantee safe passage through the key waterway.

Latest News

CENTCOM commander heads to Israel, Gulf as Lebanon talks stall

Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Navy Adm. Brad Cooper testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 14, 2026, in Washington.

Jared Szuba

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

Oil falls below $74 as Hormuz traffic recovers after Iran war

Elke Scholiers/Getty Images

Analysis

Why Iran's generals are intensifying anti-US rhetoric amid negotiations

An Iranian man rides his motorbike past a billboard on May 28, 2026.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Explainer

Hormuz tolls, frozen funds pose early tests for US-Iran peace progress

AMIRHOSSEIN KHORGOOEI / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images

An Iranian woman without wearing mandatory headscarves walks past electoral posters in Tehran, Iran, on June 20, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. People in Iran are increasingly showing less interest in casting their vote in the snap presidential election scheduled on June 28 after the disqualification of several candidates by the country's religious Guardian Council. Voter turnouts have hit historically lo

Iran’s Reformist, hard-liner candidates clash over foreign policy in last debate

Masoud Pezeshkian fiercely attacked his hard-line rivals in an intense live debate over their support behind the takeovers of the Saudi and British embassies and their sabotage against the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

CORRECTION / Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment on the village of Khiam in south Lebanon near the border with Israel on June 19, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by RABIH DAHER / AFP) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by RABIH DAHER has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [June 19] instead of [June 8]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your onlin

Analysis

Hezbollah, Israel not seeking full-blown war but risk of miscalculation at peak

While neither Israel nor Hezbollah is interested in war, its prospects seem higher than ever before.

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

NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoana, chairs a session of North Atlantic Council (NAC) with Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Sarajevo, on February 1, 2024. (Photo by Elvis BARUKCIC / AFP) (Photo by ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images)

Interview

NATO's deputy chief says Iran helping Russian 'threat to European security'

NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana warned of Iran's destabilizing influence reaching as far as Venezuela and Cuba while also sounding the alarm on Wagner's widespread presence in Sahel.

Mircea Geoana

Mircea Geoana

NATO Deputy Secretary-General

Former foreign minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, delivers a speech during an electoral campaign rally to support Masoud Pezeshkianin in Tehran, Iran, on June 19, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. (Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Could Zarif tilt Iran's election toward long shot Reformist Pezeshkian?

By enlisting Mohammad Javad Zarif, Masoud Pezeshkian is sending a signal to the United States and the West, as well as to Iranians, about a possible change of course in Iran's foreign policy if he pulls off an upset next week.

Vehicles move past a billboard displaying the faces of the six candidates running in the upcoming Iranian presidential election in the Iranian capital Tehran on June 16, 2024.

In first debate, Iran’s 6 presidential contenders clash over sanctions, ailing economy

The first in a series of live debates was held as part of a campaign by the state broadcaster to instill voter enthusiasm and reverse anticipated apathy in a largely disillusioned electorate.

The Azerbaijan Army holds military pentathlon competitions on June 11, 2024.

Iran, Azerbaijan seek to move past tensions with joint military exercise

As part of its policy to build regional alliances, Tehran has been seeking to dissuade Azerbaijan against its warming ties with Israel, and to exert influence in the South Caucasus geopolitical calculations.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani leaves after talks at the Coburg Palais, the venue of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on August 4, 2022. - The United States and the European Union's Iran nuclear envoys on August 3, 2022 said they were travelling to Vienna for talks with Tehran's delegation as they seek to salvage the agreement on its atomic ambitions. (Photo by Alex HALADA / AFP) (Photo by ALEX HALADA/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran hopes to finalize 20-year pact with Russia as Bagheri Kani meets Lavrov

Despite lingering questions and skepticism at home, the Iranian government has been pushing the agreement as part of its overall strategy to build new alliances meant to mitigate Western political pressure and economic sanctions.

A military truck carries an Arash drone past a portrait of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a military parade as part of a ceremony marking the country's annual army day in Tehran, on April 17, 2024.

EU sanctions Iranian defense minister, Quds commander over drone transfers to Russia

Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani and IRGC Quds Force commander Ismail Qaani are two of the six Iranian individuals and three Iranian entities sanctioned by the European Union this week as the United States also expands sanctions against Iran.

A police car is seen outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, Swedem, Jan. 31, 2024.

Mossad says Iran behind attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden, Belgium

Two months before the Olympic Games in France, the Mossad warns that criminal organizations are acting on Iran's behalf to target Israelis and Jews across Europe.

Ghadr

What we know on Houthis' latest Ghadr anti-ship Iranian ballistic missile

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday that the Yemeni militant group has obtained the technology to manufacture anti-ship ballistic missiles.

Iraqis carry portraits of Iran's late president Ebrahim Raisi outside the Iranian embassy in Baghdad during a condolences service on May 20, 2024 for the president and his entourage, who were killed in a helicopter crash in Iran the previous day.

Iran pledges continued support for regional proxies despite Raisi's death

In a show of defiance to Western adversaries, Iran hosted senior leaders of several regional militant organizations to renew promises that they will continue to have Tehran's blessing despite President Ebrahim Raisi's death.

Iranians participate in the 12th term parliamentary elections and the 6th term Assembly of Leadership Experts' voting at a Tehran polling station on March 1, 2024.

Culture

What Iran's elections could signal about potential for US escalation

The sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has plunged the country into new uncertainty, but it’s unlikely to derail Washington's quiet push to dial back tensions with Tehran.