United States signalled on Thursday that Iranian players will be allowed to participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, even as it drew a firm line on who can accompany them. Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Bloomberg)…
THE PAST couple of days in the Middle East have been characterised by the now-familiar whiplash. On April 17th Donald Trump announced the Strait of Hormuz had opened to traffic. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, confirmed as much. The same day outlets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) criticised Mr Araghchi for failing…
During the United States-Israeli war on Iran, Tehran has said the Strait of Hormuz is open to all except the US and its allies. One-fifth of the world’s oil shipments transit through the strait. On March 2, Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that the…
Western countries have condemned what rights groups and U.N. officials describe as a brutal crackdown on protesters in Iran, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets and security forces responded with lethal force. The U.S. this week imposed new sanctions on Iranian officials tied to the suppression, while the United Nations has expressed “horror”…
Iran is running out of water. “If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll have to ration water,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Nov. 6. “If it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate Tehran.” Blame the Islamic Republic’s fanatical hatred of Israel. Decades ago the Jewish state saved Iran from catastrophic ruin…
IDF, Shin Bet seize weapons smuggled by Iran Israeli forces intercepted a major Iranian weapons shipment smuggled to West Bank terrorists, including mines, rockets, drones, and rifles, in a joint IDF-Shin Bet operation. The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) seized a large stockpile of weapons smuggled from Iran to terror operatives in the…
If you ever get geopolitical amnesia and forget what the current Iranian regime is all about, don’t worry. It will remind you. Take the news from Australia, where the Prime Minister says Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated attacks on Jewish neighborhoods. PREMIUM An Iranian flag flutters outside the Embassy of the Islamic Republic…
A key nuclear site in Iran’s Isfahan province has come under Israeli attack, with local officials saying there were no radiation leaks. Early on Saturday, smoke could be seen rising from an area near a mountain in the city of Isfahan after Israeli air strikes hit the nuclear site overnight, triggering the air defence system….
A Hong Kong company has become one of the latest entities sanctioned by the United States for allegedly supporting Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Hong Kong-based Super Sources Industrial and its director and sole owner Wang Chao were among those included in a fresh round of sanctions involving six individuals and 12 companies announced by the…