DUBAI, Jan 4: Iran has resumed 20% uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility, the government said on Monday, breaching a 2015 nuclear pact with major powers and possibly complicating efforts by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal.

Deep in the lush valleys of northern Iran, where the Alborz Mountains crumble toward the sea, Ali Rahimi takes up his grisly work.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb programme was killed in an ambush near Tehran on Friday that could provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.

DUBAI, May 8: Two people died and 38 were injured when a 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck northern Iran in the early hours of Friday and people fled their homes in panic, state television reported.

IRAN, April 30: The death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 71 in the past 24 to 6,028, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Thursday.

TEHRAN, Iran, April 22: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it put the Islamic Republic’s first military satellite into orbit, dramatically unveiling what experts described as a secret space program with a surprise launch Wednesday that came amid wider tensions with the United States.

DUBAI, March 21: Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose by more than 100 to 1,556 on Saturday and the total number of people infected now exceeds 20,000, a health ministry official said.

TEHRAN, Iran, March 19: Iran’s top leader will pardon 10,000 more prisoners in an apparent effort to combat the coronavirus, state TV reported Thursday.

DUBAI, March 17: Iran has temporarily freed about 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners in response to the coronavirus epidemic, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.

DUBAI, March 9: Iran has released approximately 70,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday, according to Mizan, the news site of the judiciary.

DUBAI, March 6: Iran’s death toll from coronavirus infections jumped on Friday to 124, as 17 died over the past 24 hours and more than 1,000 were additionally diagnosed with the disease, a health ministry spokesman said in Tehran.

BENGALURU, March 1: India reported two more cases of coronavirus on Monday, taking the number of people who have tested positive in the country to five.

DUBAI, March 1: This weekend’s agreement between the United States and Taliban insurgents has no legal standing, Iran said on Sunday, dismissing the deal as a pretext to legitimise the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

DUBAI, UAE, Feb 24: A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, Iran’s semiofficial ILNA news agency reported on Monday.

DUBAI, Feb 2:  Iran welcomes Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi’s election as prime minister of Iraq, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Sunday, according to the official IRNA new agency.

DUBAI , Jan 28: The current U.S. government is the worst in the history of America, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state TV on Tuesday.

DUBAI, Jan 27: Iranians should not allow U.S. President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach to harm national unity ahead of parliamentary elections, President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech, lashing out at hardliners over mass disqualification of candidates.

BEIRUT, Jan 23: Iran has long sought the withdrawal of American forces from neighboring Iraq, but the U.S. killing of an Iranian general and an Iraqi militia commander in Baghdad has added new impetus to the effort, stoking anti-American feelings that Tehran hopes to exploit to help realize the goal.

DUBAI, Jan 21:  Iran has asked the U.S. and French authorities for equipment to download information from black boxes on a downed Ukrainian airliner, a request that will add to international frustration at Tehran’s failure to send the recorders abroad for analysis.

CAIRO, Jan 19: Iran-aligned Houthis attacked a military training camp in the Yemeni city of Marib on Saturday, killing‮ ‬60 military personnel and wounding dozens others, Saudi state television said on Saturday evening.

TEHRAN, IRAN, Jan 15: Iran’s president warned Wednesday that European soldiers in the Mideast “could be in danger” after three nations challenged Tehran over breaking the limits of its nuclear deal. Tehran’s top diplomat meanwhile acknowledged that Iranians “were lied to” for days following the Islamic Republic’s accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian jetliner that killed 176 people.

Jan 15: U.S. President Donald Trump said he agreed with a comment by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that a “Trump deal” should replace the Iran nuclear deal.

DUBAI, 12 Jan: Iran’s admission that it shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 aboard, has provoked international outrage and triggered growing protests against Iranian authorities in Tehran and other cities including one in which Britain’s ambassador was detained.

KIEV, Jan 11: Ukraine International Airlines said on Saturday that its plane that crashed in Iran this week had received no warning from Tehran airport about a possible threat to its safety before it took off en route for Kiev.

DUBAI, Jan 11: A Ukrainian aircraft which crashed earlier this week in Iran had flown close to a sensitive military site belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards and was shot down unintentionally due to human error, the Iranian military said in a statement read on state TV on Saturday.

TEHRAN, IRAN 10: An Iranian official is denying a missile hit a Ukrainian airplane that crashed near Tehran and is calling on both the U.S. and Canada to release data backing their missile-strike allegation.

NEW YORK, Jan 9: The election was always going to be about Donald Trump. But over the span of a few days, the yearslong focus on the Republican president’s performance on the economy, health care and immigration has been overtaken by an urgent debate over foreign policy and war.

DUBAI, Jan 9: A Ukrainian airliner was on fire immediately before it crashed southwest of Tehran, killing all 176 on board, according to an initial report by Iranian investigators.

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Jan 8: Iranian forces fired missiles at military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for the U.S. killing of an Iranian general, raising the stakes in its conflict with Washington amid concern of a wider war in the Middle East.

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Jan 8: Iran launched missiles at U.S.-led forces in Iraq early on Wednesday, retaliating for the U.S. drone strike on an Iranian commander whose killing last week stoked fears of a new Middle East war.

WASHINGTON, Jan 8: Democrats in the U.S. Congress and some of the party’s presidential contenders warned on Tuesday about escalating conflict in the Middle East after Iran launched a retaliatory missile strike against U.S. forces in Iraq.

TEHRAN, Iran, Jan 8: Iranian state TV is reporting a Ukrainian airplane carrying 170 passengers and crew has crashed near an airport in the capital, Tehran. There is no immediate word on injures.

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Jan 8: Iran said it launched a missile attack on U.S.-led forces in Iraq in the early hours of Wednesday in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike on an Iranian commander whose killing has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

DUBAI/BAGHDAD, Jan 7: The body of a top Iranian military commander killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq last week reached his hometown for burial on Tuesday as the U.S. defense secretary denied reports that the U.S. military was preparing to withdraw from Iraqi territory.

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Jan 7: The United States has no plans to pull its troops out of Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday, following reports by Reuters and other media of an American military letter informing Iraqi officials about re-positioning troops in preparation for leaving the country.

BERLIN, Jan 6: Iran’s announcement on Sunday that it would abandon limitations on enriching uranium could be the first step towards the end of a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, Jan 6: President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that Iranian cultural sites were fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official.

TEL AVIV – We no longer live in an era in which wars are officially declared. The US drone strike that killed Qassem Suleimani, the charismatic commander of Iran’s Quds Force, is but one landmark event in a multiyear, multi-front war between the US and its allies and Iran and its many proxies.

DUBAI, Jan 5: Oman has called on the United States and Iran to seek dialogue to ease tensions, Oman News Agency reported, after a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport on Friday.

TEHRAN, IRAN, Jan 5: The body of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, arrived Sunday in Iran to throngs of mourners, as President Donald Trump threatened to bomb 52 sites in the Islamic Republic if Tehran retaliates by attacking Americans

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA, Jan 5: President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Saturday, threatening to hit dozens of targets in the Islamic Republic “very fast and very hard” if it retaliates for the targeted killing of the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

BAGHDAD, Jan 3: Iran threatened on Friday to hit back hard after a U.S. air strike in Baghdad on Friday killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds force and architect of its growing military influence in the Middle East.

TOKYO, Dec 20:  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani renewed his condemnation of the U.S. for withdrawing from a nuclear agreement and asked for Japan’s help in efforts to maintain the deal as the two leaders met in Tokyo amid a continuing impasse between Tehran and Washington.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Dec 8: A Princeton scholar held for three years in Iran on widely criticized espionage charges was freed Saturday as part of a prisoner exchange that saw America release a detained Iranian scientist, a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions.

DUBAI, Dec 2 : Iran is still selling its oil despite U.S. sanctions on Tehran’s exports, the country’s Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri was quoted on Monday as saying by state TV, adding that Washington’s “maximum pressure” on Tehran had failed.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov 20: Days of protests over rising fuel prices and a subsequent government crackdown have killed at least 106 people across Iran, Amnesty International said Tuesday, adding that the real figure may be much higher.

Iran’s resumption of atomic activity at the Fordow underground facility is the latest step in reducing its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal following the withdrawal of the United States in 2018. Iran says it has started injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into 1,044 IR-1 centrifuges at its Fordow plant, in Tehran’s latest step away from its atomic accord with world powers since President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal over a year ago.

DUBAI, Nov 10 : Iran has discovered a new oilfield in the southwest of the country that has the potential to boost its reserves by about a third, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday.

DUBAI , Nov 8 : Iranian media reported on Friday that Iran had shot down a drone over its southern port city of Mahshahr, without providing further details.

Unless the rest of the world gets involved, the dangerous game the US and Iran are playing could end in direct confrontation