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Iran

May 9, 2026

Tehran 3:27 am

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Traffic passes a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles in service, with text in Arabic reading "the honest [person's] promise" and in Persian "Israel is weaker than a spider's web," Valiasr Square, Tehran, April 15, 2024. ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images.

Analysis

CIA report on Iran missiles undercuts Netanyahu as war euphoria dissipates

The findings cast doubt on Israel’s wartime gains and put pressure on Netanyahu’s campaign strategy ahead of elections.

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

Getty

US strikes Iran tankers as UAE reports fresh missile, drone attacks

Strikes on Iranian tankers and fresh exchanges in the Gulf escalate tensions as Washington awaits Tehran’s response to a deal proposal.

In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency on May 4, 2026, the Iran-flagged tugboat Basim sails near a ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

What to know about Iran's 'Persian Gulf Strait Authority' to control Hormuz traffic

The establishment of an entity seeking to control maritime transportation in the Strait of Hormuz is the latest sign that Iran wants to formalize authority in the strategic waterway.

Latest News

US sets expectations for Iraq’s next PM to confront Iranian militias

Popular Mobilization Forces

Analysis

China shores up Iran support as Trump seeks exit

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China in Beijing on May 6, 2026. Credit: Telegram

Joyce Karam

Iran president says he held official meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei: What to know

An Iranian woman holds up an image of Iran's new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

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

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.

Iran sets record daily deaths from coronavirus

Iran marked its highest daily mortality rate in the coronavirus pandemic as hospitals are increasingly overstretched amid an exponential influx of new cases.

Iranian security and rescue staff work at the site of an explosion at the Sina At'har health centre in the upmarket northern neighbourhood of Tajrish in the capital Tehran on July 1, 2020. - Iranian police questioned four people as part of investigations into a powerful explosion that killed 19 people at a Tehran clinic the night before, state media reported. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Mysterious explosions escalate Israel, Iran tensions

Ahead of the US presidential elections, and on the backdrop of mysterious explosions, Israel prepares for various escalation scenarios on Iran’s part.

NATANZ, IRAN - APRIL 9: A general view of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, is seen on April 9, 2007, 180 miles south of Tehran, Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced yesterday, April 9, that Iran has stepped up their Uranium enrichment programme, with up to 3,000 isotope separating centrifuges now in operation. The news has brought condemnation from the International Community and the UN. Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani confirmed the scaling-up of activity but declined to

Iran admits incident at nuclear site caused 'slowdown'

Iranian officials have confirmed that an incident at the Natanz nuclear facility was intentional.

Iran confirms ‘incident’ at nuclear site

A third fire has struck Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant in one week.