Iran’s Revolutionary Guards successfully launched a third military satellite into orbit today, state media reported, citing Minister of Communications Issa Zarepour. According to Reuters, the Noor 3 imaging satellite orbits at an altitude of 450 kilometres (280 miles) above the earth’s surface and was launched by the three-stage Qased, or messenger carrier, state media said, which
A third Bahraini serviceman died today following an alleged drone strike carried out by Yemen’s Houthi-aligned armed forces on Monday against forces of the Saudi-led coalition in Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen, Bahrain’s state news agency said. The news comes a day after the Bahraini military said in a statement that an officer and a soldier
An Iranian court has sentenced four people to death on charges of producing and distributing counterfeit alcohol, the Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary reported yesterday. The counterfeit and bootlegged alcohol poisoned hundreds of people in the northern province of Alborz in June. A total of 208 people were poisoned, of whom 17 died and another
The Jordanian and Iranian foreign ministers met to discuss the Syrian crisis last week, as the conflict continues to rage on and cross-border drug smuggling plagues the region. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Saturday, Jordan’s foreign minister held a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian, in which
One person has died and four others were injured in an incident at Iran’s southern refinery of Bandar Abbas last week, Iranian state media reported on Monday. The Iranian Oil Ministry’s Shana news agency said the incident occurred late on 22 September during emergency repairs, adding that five maintenance workers were hurt, with one worker
Saudi Arabia said, on Monday, it has decided to end light-touch oversight of its nuclear activities by the UN atomic watchdog and switch to full-blown safeguards, a change the Agency has been demanding for years, Reuters reports. Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear programme that it wants to expand to eventually include activities like proliferation-sensitive
A senior Iranian military official has lauded the country’s defence achievements, describing the Islamic Republic as the “first” defence power in the Middle East. According to PressTV, the spokesman for Iran’s Defence Ministry, Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, made the remarks during a ceremony yesterday in commemoration of the martyrs of the devastating eight-year war with Saddam Hussein-era Iraq
It was a carnival in the Iranian capital last week as football superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and his Saudi Arabian football club, Al-Nassr, flew in from Riyadh, bringing Tehran to a virtual standstill, Anadolu Agency reports. Thousands of fans stormed the streets to welcome the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who was visiting Iran for the first
The leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, confirmed his support for reaching a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia, but called for not allowing Riyadh to enrich uranium. The former prime minister told Israeli Broadcasting Corporation KAN that he supports reaching a normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, noting that he had begun moving along this
Tehran yesterday announced that it had thwarted 30 “terrorist” attacks planned by Daesh across the country in recent days, Anadolu news agency reported. In a statement, the Intelligence Ministry said 28 members of a “terrorist cell” affiliated with Daesh were arrested in different provinces. The arrests were made following a series of raids in Tehran, Alborz and