Iran

TEHRAN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the West has turned the Middle East into a "powder keg" through arms sales to the Arab countries in the region, Press TV reported.

Over the past year alone, the West sold weapons worth 100 billion U.S. dollars to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said Zarif.

"The weapons did not bring security to anyone," he added.

Tehran, Feb 21; AP/GANASHAKTI: Iran's navy says it will hold an annual drill in the strategic Strait of Hormuz as pressure mounts on the country months after the United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran, targeting its vital oil sector.

The strait is located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and is crucial to global energy supplies, with about a third of all oil traded at sea passing through it.

Iranian Adm. Hossein Khanzadi told state TV on Thursday the 3-day maneuvers will start on Friday and extend as far as the Sea of Oman and the fringes of the Indian Ocean.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian military commander said Tuesday that the security forces have arrested two Pakistani nationals as the suspects linked to the recent terrorist attack in southeastern Iran.

"The suicide bomber and two elements of the terrorist team targeting IRGC forces were Pakistanis," Commander of the Ground Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Pakpour, was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Pakpour identified the suicide bomber as Hafiz Mohammad Ali.

Tehran, Feb 17 : Iran on Sunday launched a new locally-made submarine capable of firing cruise missiles, state TV said, in the country's latest show of military might at a time of heightened tensions with the US.

The launch ceremony, led by President Hassan Rouhani, took place in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

"Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully self-reliant on land, air and sea," Rouhani said.

"Our defensive power is meant to defend our interests and we have never sought to attack any country," he added.

Bandar Abbas, Feb 17, IRNA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Tehran is after cordial and brotherly relations in the Persian Gulf region.

MUNICH (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister is blasting the United States’ “unhealthy fixation” with his country and condemning the Trump administration’s efforts to press European countries to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prodded European powers Germany, France and Britain to follow Washington in withdrawing from the deal and to “stop undermining U.S. sanctions.”

13 Feb 2019; AFP: A suicide car bombing on a Revolutionary Guards bus in southeastern Iran killed 27 troops on Wednesday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the elite forces in years.

The assault came as the troops were returning from a border patrol mission, the Guards said in a statement.

TEHRAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said here Wednesday that the anti-Iran meeting in the Polish capital Warsaw is "doomed to fail," semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

"This is another attempt by the United States to pursue its policies vis-a-vis Iran, which has not been forged properly," Zarif was quoted as saying.

"In my eyes, Warsaw meeting is doomed to fail from the very start," he said. "I think they would not be able to issue a joint statement."

TEHRAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of negotiations with the United States over the existing issues.

"As for America, no solution for the (existing mutual) problems is in prospect," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement published by his official website.

"Talks with America will bear no fruit, but material and spiritual loss for the Islamic republic," Khamenei was quoted as saying.

11 Feb 2019; DW: Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of the capital Tehran on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the Shah's last government.

The march is the culmination of official celebrations called the "10 Day Dawn" that marks the period in February 1979 when the revolution's leader Khomeini returned from exile and toppled the monarchy.